A week-long festival celebrating the arts, kite flying, and culinary traditions of eastern Bali — with traditional boat races, sand sculpture, and nightly cultural performances on Sanur's beachfront.
The Sanur Village Festival has been held annually on Sanur's beachfront each August since 2006, positioning itself as a community-driven counterpoint to the more commercial arts festivals of the south. The week-long programme is anchored to Sanur's identity as a quiet, culturally rich alternative to Kuta and Seminyak — a place that prizes its Balinese character and its long history as a nexus between traditional culture and international artistic influence.
The festival's most photographed event is the kite competition, held on the wide beach where the reliable August onshore breeze supports massive traditional Balinese kites (layang-layang) in the distinctive janggan, bebean, and pecukan forms — some measuring 10 metres in wingspan. Teams of ten or more men are required to launch and control the largest kites, and competitions for height, design, and flight duration run across several festival days. The drone of giant kites in the wind is the festival's ambient soundtrack.
Traditional outrigger boat racing (jukung) is another major event, run on the waters off the beach with crews of fishermen who maintain Sanur's working maritime tradition. Evening performances span a full range of Balinese dance and music — legong, baris, topeng, and gamelan competitions among banjars from across Gianyar and Denpasar regencies — alongside food stalls featuring Sanur's distinctive eastern Balinese cuisine and craft markets showcasing local silver, batik, and traditional textile work.
Sanur Village Festival | Bali Events | Bali Travel Now