Festivals and celebrationsEast Asia
Blue Pearl Ice Festival
In its own language: Хөх Cувд Mөсний Баяр
Mongolia's yearly winter ice festival of skating races, ice shooting and horse races
The Blue Pearl Ice Festival is an annual winter event in Khövsgöl Province, Mongolia, first held in 2000 and run as a winter tourism event from 2001. It brings together ice skating races, ice shooting and horse races, and in 2024 it drew more than 20,000 visitors from Mongolia and abroad.
When is Blue Pearl Ice Festival kept?
Blue Pearl Ice Festival is kept every year in winter.
The Blue Pearl Ice Festival is a winter gathering in Khövsgöl Province, Mongolia, held once a year. It began in 2000 and was reshaped in 2001 into a winter tourism event for the country. People come to watch and take part in ice skating races, ice shooting and horse races, and the event has grown into a large public occasion, with more than twenty thousand visitors in 2024.
What it is
The Blue Pearl Ice Festival is a winter festival held each year in Khövsgöl Province, Mongolia. Its Mongolian name is Хөх Сувд Мөсний Баяр, which is given in English as Blue Pearl Ice Festival. The event is listed among Mongolia's winter tourism attractions, a role it took on the year after it began. It has stayed in the same province throughout, and it comes round once a year, in winter. The programme is made up of contests and games, and both Mongolians and visitors from other countries attend.
Origins and history
The festival was first organised in 2000 by D. Lkhagvatsogt and J. Tumursukh. The following year it was expanded so that it could serve as a winter tourism event for Mongolia, and it has carried that role since. It was not held in 2020 or 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic in Mongolia made the gathering impossible. It returned the year after and has been kept up yearly, holding its place in the winter season of Khövsgöl Province. What began as a local event has become one that draws guests from abroad.
How it is kept
The festival comes round once a year, in winter, in Khövsgöl Province. Organisers put on a programme of winter contests. The ones the sources name are ice skating races, ice shooting and horse races, and other activities are added besides these. People come to take part and to watch, and the crowd mixes Mongolians with guests from abroad. Because the event is run as a winter tourism attraction, visitors travel to the province for it, and it has become part of the winter season there.
Visitors and growth
In 2024 the festival attracted more than twenty thousand visitors. Guests came from eight countries, among them Japan, South Korea, Germany and the United States. The sources give no further breakdown of the crowd, and no figures for earlier years. What they show is a winter event in one Mongolian province that was turned into a tourism draw from 2001 and has kept that role since, with 2020 and 2021 the only years it did not run. Its size in 2024 is the clearest measure the sources offer of how far it reaches.
How Blue Pearl Ice Festival is kept
The festival is held once a year, in winter, in Khövsgöl Province. Organisers put on a programme of winter contests. Those the sources list are ice skating races, ice shooting and horse races, and further activities are added besides these. People come to take part and to watch, and the crowd is a mix of Mongolians and guests from abroad. Because it is a tourism event, visitors travel to the province for it, and the festival is one of the winter events that draws them there.
When and where
The festival is held once a year, in winter. The sources do not give the month or the exact dates. It has run every year since 2000 apart from 2020 and 2021, when it was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic in Mongolia.
The festival is held in Khövsgöl Province, in Mongolia, the country it belongs to. It began there and has stayed there. Its programme is listed as part of Mongolia's winter tourism, and it has become a reason for travellers from other countries to visit the province in the cold season.
What Blue Pearl Ice Festival means
The festival is a winter gathering rather than a rite, and the sources describe no religious or symbolic meaning attached to it. Its value to those who keep it lies in the meeting itself: a yearly date when people from Khövsgöl, from other parts of Mongolia and from abroad come together for races and contests. It has been kept going, apart from the two pandemic years, since 2000.
Questions people ask about Blue Pearl Ice Festival
When is Blue Pearl Ice Festival kept?
Blue Pearl Ice Festival is kept every year in winter.
What is the Blue Pearl Ice Festival?
It is a winter festival held each year in Khövsgöl Province, Mongolia. Its programme is made up of winter games, including ice skating races, ice shooting and horse races, and it is listed among the country's winter tourism events.
Where does it take place?
In Khövsgöl Province, in Mongolia. That is where it began in 2000, and it has stayed there. Visitors also travel to it from other countries: in 2024 guests came from eight nations, among them Japan, South Korea, Germany and the United States.
Who started it, and who goes?
It was first organised in 2000 by D. Lkhagvatsogt and J. Tumursukh, and expanded a year later to serve as a winter tourism event. In 2024 it attracted more than twenty thousand visitors, with guests from eight countries.
See also
NaadamA midsummer festival of wrestling, horse racing, and archery kept by Mongols in Mongolia and neighboring regions.
Lunar New YearNew year festivals dated by the moon, kept from East Asia to the Middle East
Golden Eagle FestivalAn annual gathering in western Mongolia celebrating Kazakh eagle hunting and horsemanship
Hunting with eaglesThe Central Asian tradition of hunting foxes and hares from horseback with golden eagles.Good reading and sources
- Blue Pearl Ice Festival on WikipediaEncyclopedia
- More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
- Wikidata recordOpen data
The facts on this page come from the Wikipedia article "Blue Pearl Ice Festival", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, and from its Wikidata record (CC0). EveryParampara rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.
It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.
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