Mt Hagen sing-sing Festival

What: A fes­ti­val unlike any oth­er, the Mt Hagen sing-sing and it’s pre-show Paiya, are both a cel­e­bra­tion and dis­play of the cul­ture, his­to­ry, dance, cos­tumes and music of tribes and vil­lages from all over Papua New Guinea.

Over the course of two days,  a num­ber of tribes will step onto the con­vert­ed rug­by field in Mount Hagen and in full trib­al cos­tume and with ful­ly paint­ed faces per­form a tra­di­tion­al dance seek­ing to peace­ful­ly share island tra­di­tions with both locals and vis­i­tors — with vis­i­tor par­tic­i­pa­tion in the dances encour­aged and face paint­ing by local tribes oblig­a­tory for vis­i­tors.

When: The main show is on the Sat­ur­day and Sun­day on either the sec­ond or third week­end of August, with the pre-show Paiya tak­ing place on the Fri­day before the main show in the Paiya vil­lage – around 45 min­utes dri­ve from Mt Hagen and includ­ed in most tour pack­ages.

Where: The main sing-sing takes place in the rug­by field in the town of Mt Hagen, with the pre-show being in the vil­lage of Paiya. It is rec­om­mend­ed to seek out a tour and guide before hand to ensure safe­ty and take the stress out of atten­dance.

Dura­tion: The show typ­i­cal­ly lasts from 9am to 2pm over the course of the week­end.

Tick­ets: The best option to guar­an­tee tick­ets is through a tour guide, with slots on tours for the sing-sing fill­ing up almost a year in advance. If trav­el­ling inde­pen­dent­ly, expect to pay 300PGK for a tourist pass which is valid for the two days of the show.

Need to Know: It is strong­ly rec­om­mend­ed to join a tour to expe­ri­ence the Paiya and Mt Hagen fes­ti­vals, Papua New Guinea can be dan­ger­ous – with book­ings for the tours or hotel accom­mo­da­tion also required to be made one year in advance.

For those want­i­ng to expe­ri­ence more of sing-sing fes­ti­vals and Papua New Guinea cul­ture the Goro­ka Show, which is a sim­i­lar event held on the country’s inde­pen­dence day takes place in Sep­tem­ber.