NAADAM FESTIVAL

A national celebration with deeper roots

Naadam is one of Mongolia’s great gath­er­ings: a sum­mer cel­e­bra­tion in which sport­ing achieve­ment, nation­al cer­e­mo­ny and every­day fam­i­ly life share the same space. Its best-known com­pe­ti­tions are wrestling, horse rac­ing and archery, but the expe­ri­ence also includes praise songs, cloth­ing, food and the plea­sure of meet­ing peo­ple who have trav­elled to cel­e­brate togeth­er. Watch­ing only a final or a sta­di­um show reveals one part of a much wider occa­sion.

The games draw on skills long asso­ci­at­ed with life on the steppe. Their his­to­ry reach­es beyond the mod­ern nation­al hol­i­day into old­er assem­blies and local cel­e­bra­tions. Today the July fes­ti­val also marks the anniver­sary of the 1921 rev­o­lu­tion. These lay­ers help explain why a sin­gle descrip­tion — sport­ing tour­na­ment, cul­tur­al fes­ti­val or nation­al com­mem­o­ra­tion — nev­er quite cap­tures the whole event.

The Three Manly Games — a historical name

The tra­di­tion­al phrase eri­in gur­van naadam is often trans­lat­ed as the “Three Man­ly Games”. Explain that word­ing his­tor­i­cal­ly rather than treat­ing it as a descrip­tion of every­one tak­ing part today. Men com­pete in the nation­al bökh wrestling tour­na­ment, while women’s par­tic­i­pa­tion is par­tic­u­lar­ly vis­i­ble in archery; young rid­ers and fam­i­lies also have impor­tant roles across the cel­e­bra­tion.

Par­tic­i­pa­tion dif­fers between dis­ci­plines and tra­di­tions. An archery con­test in west­ern Mon­go­lia may fol­low dif­fer­ent cus­toms from one in the cap­i­tal. Let the actu­al com­peti­tors and their local rules guide your under­stand­ing, rather than assum­ing that every event has iden­ti­cal eli­gi­bil­i­ty, equip­ment or cer­e­mo­ny.

Opening ceremony and the capital’s atmosphere

The Nation­al Sports Sta­di­um is the focal point of Ulaanbaatar’s open­ing cel­e­bra­tion. State sym­bol­ism, per­form­ers and the Nine White Ban­ners place the games in a larg­er sto­ry of Mon­go­lian iden­ti­ty. The pro­gramme is pro­duced anew each year, so an archival pho­to­graph is a record of that edi­tion rather than a promise of a par­tic­u­lar per­for­mance on your vis­it.

Out­side the sta­di­um, the day con­tin­ues in queues, con­ver­sa­tions and food stalls. Many vis­i­tors wear a deel, the belt­ed robe seen in a wide range of colours and fab­rics. These clothes belong to liv­ing per­son­al and region­al tra­di­tions. Enjoy the detail, but ask before a close por­trait and avoid stop­ping some­one who is try­ing to reach an event.

Wrestling: learning to watch bökh

Mon­go­lian wrestling rewards bal­ance, tim­ing and the abil­i­ty to unseat an oppo­nent. The nation­al tour­na­ment is an elim­i­na­tion com­pe­ti­tion, tra­di­tion­al­ly with­out weight divi­sions. A field of 512 pro­duces nine rounds; larg­er anniver­sary edi­tions can use a dif­fer­ent field. Check the cur­rent pro­gramme before quot­ing a fixed num­ber of com­peti­tors or assum­ing the finals will fol­low last year’s tim­ings.

Look beyond the deci­sive fall. The cer­e­mo­ni­al move­ment, the wrestler’s hat and the atten­dant or her­ald known as a zasu­ul form part of the spec­ta­cle. Titles such as nachin (fal­con), zaan (ele­phant) and arslan (lion) acknowl­edge achieve­ment. Ask a knowl­edge­able guide to explain the com­peti­tors and the stakes of the round; a few names make an after­noon far more absorb­ing.

Horse racing: a wider landscape

Naadam rac­ing takes place over open coun­try rather than around a com­pact sta­di­um track. Hors­es are grouped by age, with dis­tances vary­ing by cat­e­go­ry and cur­rent rules. Near Ulaan­baatar, Khui Doloon Khudag is the main rac­ing area. The space, weath­er and jour­ney there change the rhythm of the day: you may spend as much time wait­ing and mov­ing as watch­ing a fin­ish.

Train­ers, rid­ers and fam­i­lies give the rac­ing grounds their char­ac­ter. Lis­ten to local expla­na­tions of the hors­es and the cer­e­mo­ni­al songs, and leave room for work­ing ani­mals and offi­cials. The approach­ing dust cloud can be dra­mat­ic, but the route and the run-out beyond a fin­ish must remain clear. A long lens and a des­ig­nat­ed spec­ta­tor posi­tion are the right com­bi­na­tion.

Young jockeys, safety and welfare

Chil­dren par­tic­i­pate as jock­eys, and their involve­ment rais­es seri­ous ques­tions about injury, pro­tec­tion and edu­ca­tion. Safe­ty equip­ment and pub­lished rules do not remove those con­cerns. In Octo­ber 2026, the UN coun­try team in Mon­go­lia again raised con­cerns about pro­posed changes affect­ing spring rac­ing; that state­ment con­cerns a dif­fer­ent sea­son and must not be mis­tak­en for a con­firmed July pro­gramme rule.

Vis­i­tors can acknowl­edge the tra­di­tion while tak­ing child pro­tec­tion seri­ous­ly. Do not pres­sure chil­dren to per­form for a pic­ture, seek access to restrict­ed prepa­ra­tion areas or praise dan­ger­ous rid­ing. Horse wel­fare also deserves atten­tion, but claims about an indi­vid­ual animal’s con­di­tion require evi­dence. Fol­low offi­cials, keep your dis­tance and choose vis­its that respect both peo­ple and ani­mals.

Archery and the sound of encouragement

Archery offers a dif­fer­ent pace. Watch the prepa­ra­tion, draw and release, then lis­ten to the calls around the tar­gets. Khalkh, Buri­ad and Uri­ankhai tra­di­tions have dis­tinct rules and prac­tices; the bow alone does not tell the full sto­ry. Women’s com­pe­ti­tion is an impor­tant part of the mod­ern fes­ti­val, along­side oth­er cat­e­gories defined by the organ­is­ers.

In Ulaan­baatar the archery area is close to the sta­di­um, which makes it a prac­ti­cal com­pan­ion to a wrestling ses­sion. Clos­er spec­ta­tor access is nev­er per­mis­sion to step into a shoot­ing lane or behind tar­gets. Ask an offi­cial where to stand and set­tle into one posi­tion so the com­peti­tors can work with­out dis­trac­tion.

Anklebone shooting, music and shared heritage

You may also find sha­gai, or Mon­go­lian knuck­le-bone shoot­ing, on the pro­gramme. It is a sep­a­rate pre­ci­sion tra­di­tion with its own teams, equip­ment and eti­quette, not a fourth ver­sion of archery. UNESCO inscribed Mon­go­lian knuck­le-bone shoot­ing sep­a­rate­ly in 2014; Naadam itself joined the Rep­re­sen­ta­tive List of the Intan­gi­ble Cul­tur­al Her­itage of Human­i­ty in 2010.

Naadam’s cul­tur­al set­ting includes music, per­for­mance and skills passed between gen­er­a­tions. Lis­ten for the morin khu­ur and explore a sched­uled con­cert if time allows. Food is anoth­er point of con­nec­tion: khu­ushu­ur, the fried meat pas­try often asso­ci­at­ed with fes­ti­val days, is a famil­iar option. Ask what is being served, choose a busy stall and take time to sit rather than hur­ry­ing between pho­tographs.

National and local Naadam

The cap­i­tal offers large cer­e­monies and lead­ing com­peti­tors. An aimag or soum cel­e­bra­tion can bring you clos­er to the pace of a par­tic­u­lar com­mu­ni­ty, some­times with sim­pler seat­ing and few­er vis­i­tor facil­i­ties. Nei­ther is a sub­sti­tute for the oth­er, and a small­er fes­ti­val is not a per­for­mance staged to pro­vide tourists with an “authen­tic” scene.

Con­firm the local date direct­ly before arrang­ing trav­el. A wel­come may include a con­ver­sa­tion, a place to watch or an invi­ta­tion to share food; accept on the host’s terms. Leave com­pe­ti­tion space clear, pay fair­ly for ser­vices and take your rub­bish away. The strongest vis­it com­bines the scale of Ulaan­baatar with the patience to under­stand a com­mu­ni­ty cel­e­bra­tion in its own set­ting.

When Naadam Happens

The usu­al nation­al fes­ti­val dates are 11–13 July. The next occur­rence of those cal­en­dar dates is 11–13 July 2027, but the detailed 2027 com­pe­ti­tion pro­gramme, gates, prices and road arrange­ments were not ver­i­fied as announced when this guide was reviewed on 5 Novem­ber 2026. Do not treat a 2026 timetable as a con­firmed 2027 book­ing sched­ule.

Cer­e­monies, qual­i­fy­ing com­pe­ti­tions and cul­tur­al events may extend beyond the prin­ci­pal dates. Provin­cial and soum fes­ti­vals use their own pro­grammes; con­firm the spe­cif­ic place and date with its organ­is­er or a local host.

Ulaanbaatar National Naadam

Plan around two dis­tinct set­tings: the Nation­al Sports Sta­di­um and near­by archery areas in the city, and Khui Doloon Khudag out­side it. Sükhbaatar Square can host asso­ci­at­ed civic and cul­tur­al events, sub­ject to the annu­al pro­gramme. Save venue names in Mon­go­lian as well as Eng­lish and recon­firm the cor­rect entrance, not just a gen­er­al map pin.

Opening Ceremony

The open­ing cer­e­mo­ny is nor­mal­ly on 11 July at the Nation­al Sports Sta­di­um. For the next edi­tion, ver­i­fy the start time on the organiser’s announce­ment and your tick­et. Plan to reach the sta­di­um area rough­ly 60–90 min­utes before your required entry time, then allow more if the organ­is­er advis­es it. This is a plan­ning buffer, not an offi­cial gate-open­ing time.

Iden­ti­fy your gate and seat­ing sec­tion before leav­ing the hotel. Queues, secu­ri­ty checks and tem­po­rary road restric­tions make a last-minute taxi arrival unre­li­able. Use the seat you pur­chased and keep aisles clear.

Wrestling

Wrestling rounds take place at the sta­di­um across the main cel­e­bra­tion. Ear­ly rounds offer many simul­ta­ne­ous bouts; lat­er ses­sions nar­row toward the title. Con­firm which ses­sions a tick­et cov­ers, whether you may re-enter, and the actu­al round times. The open­ing show and final are dif­fer­ent view­ing pri­or­i­ties, so decide which mat­ters most before com­mit­ting your day.

Archery

The Nation­al Archery Field is beside the sta­di­um com­plex. Dif­fer­ent styles and cat­e­gories can have sep­a­rate ses­sions; con­firm the field and time rather than assum­ing every con­test runs con­tin­u­ous­ly. Pub­lic spec­ta­tor access has com­mon­ly been avail­able with­out a sta­di­um-cer­e­mo­ny seat, but check cur­rent entry con­trols and stay behind marked bound­aries.

Horse Racing

Khui Doloon Khudag lies west of Ulaan­baatar and requires a sep­a­rate road jour­ney. The vis­i­tor guide places it rough­ly 35 km from the city, but your actu­al dis­tance and trav­el time depend on your start­ing point and the assigned approach. Do not plan it as a short trans­fer from the sta­di­um.

Race class­es and fin­ish times deter­mine your depar­ture. A dawn start may be need­ed for morn­ing races. Ask the dri­ver or oper­a­tor for a fes­ti­val-day esti­mate, park­ing per­mis­sions and a clear­ly agreed return meet­ing point. Delays can turn the trans­fer into a mul­ti-hour com­mit­ment; avoid a tight flight or anoth­er timed tick­et after­ward.

Local & Rural Naadam Festivals

Aimag and soum events may fall before, dur­ing or after the nation­al cel­e­bra­tion. Con­firm direct­ly with local author­i­ties or a host who is involved in that edi­tion. Build in trav­el and an overnight stay where need­ed; a remote cel­e­bra­tion is not auto­mat­i­cal­ly a fea­si­ble after­noon out­ing from Ulaan­baatar.

Ask about toi­lets, shade, seat­ing, road con­di­tions and access before book­ing. A small­er crowd can be eas­i­er to nav­i­gate, while uneven ground and lim­it­ed infra­struc­ture may require more prepa­ra­tion.

Best Time to Arrive

Arrive in Ulaan­baatar at least a day before your first essen­tial event, ide­al­ly with anoth­er buffer if tick­ets or region­al trans­port need col­lect­ing. Avoid an inter­na­tion­al arrival on the same morn­ing as the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny. Book accom­mo­da­tion ear­ly and recon­firm arrange­ments short­ly before depar­ture.

A typical sequence — adapt it to the published programme

1. Open­ing day: arrive ear­ly for your cer­e­mo­ny gate and seat.
2. City ses­sion: watch wrestling and near­by archery when the pro­gramme allows.
3. Sep­a­rate rac­ing morn­ing: leave ear­ly for Khui Doloon Khudag rather than rush­ing out halfway through the cer­e­mo­ny.
4. Coun­try­side races: stay in autho­rised spec­ta­tor areas and leave time for the return jour­ney.
5. Back in the city: rest, eat and choose a con­firmed cul­tur­al or evening event.
6. Extra day: add a ver­i­fied region­al cel­e­bra­tion if the geog­ra­phy and dates work.

Tickets and official sales

Use the organ­is­ing committee’s cur­rent announce­ments to iden­ti­fy the autho­rised tick­et chan­nel. Enaadam was the announced online chan­nel for the 2026 nation­al sales; that is evi­dence that online pur­chase exists, not con­fir­ma­tion of the next sale date. The old advice that tick­ets can­not be bought online is out­dat­ed.

For con­text only, the 2026 com­mit­tee announce­ment report­ed sales start­ing at 07:00 on 1 July and a 150,000-tögrög opening/closing tick­et. These are past-edi­tion details, not a cur­rent quote. Ver­i­fy cur­ren­cy, fees, iden­ti­ty or phone require­ments, col­lec­tion, refunds and exact­ly which ses­sions your next-edi­tion tick­et includes. Nev­er assume a tour enquiry guar­an­tees a seat; obtain writ­ten con­fir­ma­tion.

Open­ing-cer­e­mo­ny demand is high. Buy through the announced chan­nel or a rep­utable oper­a­tor with a doc­u­ment­ed allo­ca­tion. Avoid infor­mal resellers and nev­er send mon­ey sole­ly on the strength of an unso­licit­ed social-media offer.

Venue entry and transport

Car­ry the tick­et and any required iden­ti­fi­ca­tion in the form spec­i­fied by the organ­is­er. Save an offline copy and check bag restric­tions, cam­era rules and re-entry con­di­tions. A gen­er­al spec­ta­tor tick­et is not per­mis­sion to enter the are­na, press area or an archery lane.

Allow a sep­a­rate half-day or longer for the rac­ing grounds. Ask about fes­ti­val traf­fic, park­ing per­mits and walk­ing from the park­ing area. Con­firm a named dri­ver, vehi­cle, pick­up loca­tion, return time and con­tin­gency if mobile recep­tion is poor. Agree a taxi fare or use a recog­nised book­ing ser­vice arranged through your accom­mo­da­tion.

July weather: sun, dust and sudden rain

You can spend long peri­ods out­side with lim­it­ed shade. Bring a hat, sun­screen, drink­ing water where admit­ted and a light water­proof lay­er. Wind and rain can change the feel of a sum­mer day quick­ly; a warm lay­er helps on ear­ly starts and late returns. Com­fort­able closed shoes are more use­ful than footwear cho­sen only for pho­tographs.

Dust is par­tic­u­lar­ly rel­e­vant around mov­ing vehi­cles and hors­es. Keep lens­es and phones in a secure bag when unused, and con­sid­er a light face cov­er­ing if dust both­ers you. Do not move into a dan­ger­ous posi­tion to escape a dusty spec­ta­tor area; ask staff for an alter­na­tive.

Food, toilets and payments

Plan a meal break instead of rely­ing on buy­ing food in the mid­dle of a queue. Busy stalls with food cooked thor­ough­ly in front of you are a sen­si­ble choice. Car­ry drink­ing water and check any dietary needs in advance; menus and ingre­di­ent expla­na­tions may be lim­it­ed at rur­al events.

Locate toi­lets before a long ses­sion. Car­ry tis­sues and hand sani­tis­er, and allow for basic facil­i­ties out­side the city. Have small amounts of local cash as well as a card; a stall or remote venue may not accept your pre­ferred pay­ment method. Keep valu­ables close in crowd­ed areas.

Phones, data and meeting points

Bring a charged phone, pow­er bank and offline address­es. Arrange mobile data before head­ing out of town and save tick­ets, dri­ver details and hotel infor­ma­tion local­ly. Busy net­works and an emp­ty bat­tery should not deter­mine whether you can find your group. Set a phys­i­cal meet­ing point and a time before sep­a­rat­ing.

Children, older travellers and accessibility

Choose few­er events with longer breaks. Dis­cuss seat­ing, shade, toi­let access and the walk from drop-off with the oper­a­tor before pay­ing. Sta­di­um steps, crowds and open ground at the race site can be dif­fi­cult; do not assume wheel­chair routes or acces­si­ble toi­lets are avail­able with­out writ­ten con­fir­ma­tion for the venue and date.

For chil­dren, agree what to do if sep­a­rat­ed and keep them away from hors­es, traf­fic and shoot­ing lanes. Old­er trav­ellers may pre­fer a seat­ed city ses­sion and a sep­a­rate­ly arranged coun­try­side vis­it with an ear­ly return. Ask for a real­is­tic walk­ing-dis­tance esti­mate and a vehi­cle that can get to an autho­rised near­by drop-off.

Photography and rural-event etiquette

Ask before close por­traits and accept a refusal with­out nego­ti­a­tion. A friend­ly wel­come does not remove com­pe­ti­tion bound­aries or give access to homes, gers or pri­vate fam­i­ly space. Do not touch equip­ment, cloth­ing or a horse with­out per­mis­sion. Leave drones packed unless the rel­e­vant author­i­ties and event organ­is­ers have explic­it­ly autho­rised your flight.

Book accom­mo­da­tion and trans­port ear­ly, espe­cial­ly if Naadam is part of a wider Mon­go­lian jour­ney. Con­firm local dates before pay­ing for a remote detour and leave enough time to return with­out rac­ing across unfa­mil­iar roads.

Common Mistakes

• Assum­ing every com­pe­ti­tion is held inside the sta­di­um.
• Try­ing to com­bine a timed cer­e­mo­ny and dis­tant horse race with­out allow­ing for road delays.
• Arriv­ing late or going to the wrong sta­di­um gate.
• Under­es­ti­mat­ing July sun­shine, wind, rain and dust.
• Expect­ing reserved seat­ing, card pay­ments and acces­si­ble facil­i­ties at every local event.
• Stand­ing in a race route or the run-out beyond the fin­ish.
• Block­ing an archer or wrestler for a pho­to­graph.
• Assum­ing all local fes­ti­vals use the nation­al dates.
• Book­ing a hotel too late or treat­ing an uncon­firmed tour seat as a tick­et.

Essential Naadam Experience — one full day

Choose a city-focused day if you have only one. With a con­firmed open­ing tick­et, start at the sta­di­um and give the cer­e­mo­ny your atten­tion. Stay for a wrestling ses­sion if your admis­sion per­mits it, then vis­it the archery field at a sched­uled time. Leave space for food, tra­di­tion­al cloth­ing and the atmos­phere around the grounds.

With­out an open­ing tick­et, build the day around ver­i­fied pub­lic-access archery, com­mu­ni­ty activ­i­ty and a sched­uled con­cert or exhi­bi­tion. You do not need to force a rushed trans­fer to the horse races to make the day worth­while. If rac­ing is your pri­or­i­ty, make it the day’s main out­ing instead and organ­ise trans­port around a spe­cif­ic race.

Full National Naadam Experience — several days

Sep­a­rate the cap­i­tal and coun­try­side set­tings. Use one day for cer­e­mo­ny, wrestling and near­by archery; reserve anoth­er morn­ing for Khui Doloon Khudag, with a con­firmed return plan. Add finals or an evening cul­tur­al pro­gramme only when the actu­al sched­ule and your ener­gy allow.

Learn a lit­tle before each event. Ask which wrestler is com­pet­ing, what a title sig­ni­fies and how the elim­i­na­tion round works. At archery, watch a full sequence rather than one release. At rac­ing, ask which age class you are see­ing and how its course dif­fers from the oth­ers. Exact dis­tances belong to the cur­rent cat­e­go­ry rules, not a sin­gle num­ber applied to all hors­es.

Best Cultural Experience — national and local

The strongest Naadam expe­ri­ence com­bines the major Ulaan­baatar events with Mongolia’s wider rur­al and com­mu­ni­ty tra­di­tions. Arrange a small­er region­al fes­ti­val only after its date is con­firmed. Stay long enough to observe the community’s rhythm, and use a guide or host who can explain invi­ta­tions, bound­aries and the local pro­gramme.

Appre­ci­ate the ordi­nary details: fam­i­lies meet­ing, peo­ple dis­cussing a result, a care­ful­ly cho­sen deel, musi­cians prepar­ing and food shared dur­ing a break. Tra­di­tion­al cloth­ing is not a cos­tume ser­vice for a visitor’s cam­era. Let a con­ver­sa­tion hap­pen before ask­ing for a por­trait and give peo­ple room to decline.

Make room for food, music and conversation

Try khu­ushu­ur if it suits your diet, lis­ten to a con­firmed music per­for­mance and ask ques­tions at a moment when some­one is free to answer. A cul­tur­al vis­it is rich­er when the day con­tains paus­es. Keep the itin­er­ary flex­i­ble enough for weath­er, long com­pe­ti­tion ses­sions and invi­ta­tions that do not fit a pre­cise timetable.

Treat com­peti­tors as peo­ple at work. Do not enter a wrestling area, walk into a shoot­ing lane or approach a mov­ing horse. Watch from an autho­rised place and let the event con­tin­ue around you. Respect­ful dis­tance often gives a bet­ter view of the whole scene.

Best Subjects

Build a var­ied sto­ry: the sta­di­um and open­ing cer­e­mo­ny, wrestlers and their cer­e­mo­ni­al move­ments, archers prepar­ing, rid­ers and open coun­try­side, musi­cians, fam­i­lies and the detail of a deel. Include wide views and qui­et moments as well as action. Date archival cap­tions clear­ly; a pho­to­graph from 2023 can­not estab­lish a future pro­gramme.

Best Light

Ear­ly and late day­light can be gen­tler than mid­day sun. Event times take pri­or­i­ty, so pre­pare for hard light: watch expo­sure on faces, avoid blown high­lights and use shade when a per­son has agreed to a por­trait. Over­cast weath­er can suit cloth­ing and por­traits. Pro­tect your cam­era before rain or dust arrives, rather than open­ing the bag repeat­ed­ly in poor con­di­tions.

Best Positions

Ask staff where spec­ta­tors may stand, then work with­in that bound­ary. A high­er autho­rised seat can reveal the stadium’s scale; an unob­struct­ed side view may help with archery. At rac­ing, choose a des­ig­nat­ed spec­ta­tor area safe­ly away from the route and fin­ish run-out. Nev­er step for­ward as hors­es approach, even if oth­ers do.

Wrestling Photography

A tele­pho­to lens helps iso­late a pair from a busy are­na. As a start­ing point, try around 1/1000 sec­ond for fast move­ment, con­tin­u­ous aut­o­fo­cus and short bursts; adjust ISO to the avail­able light. Include the moments before and after a bout, when ges­ture and cer­e­mo­ny add con­text. Do not block seat­ed spec­ta­tors or use a cam­era as a rea­son to enter the field.

Horse-Racing Photography

Use a long lens from a safe autho­rised posi­tion and start around 1/1600–1/2000 sec­ond if you want to freeze move­ment. A wider frame can show the land­scape and the approach with­out mak­ing you chase the hors­es. Pan­ning at a slow­er shut­ter is an option­al cre­ative tech­nique from the same safe posi­tion, nev­er an excuse to move clos­er.

Keep straps and bags secure, avoid flash around hors­es and pro­tect equip­ment from dust. Do not approach young rid­ers for intru­sive close-ups or inter­fere with train­ers. A clear route and the wel­fare of the par­tic­i­pants take pri­or­i­ty over an image.

Archery Photography

Pho­to­graph the prepa­ra­tion and release from an approved spec­ta­tor side. Nev­er stand down­range or behind a tar­get. A mod­er­ate tele­pho­to lens helps iso­late hands, bow and expres­sion with­out enter­ing the com­pe­ti­tion area. Fol­low offi­cials’ instruc­tions even when a shoot­ing lane appears tem­porar­i­ly qui­et.

Cultural & Portrait Photography

Ask first, make a clear request and accept the answer. For a will­ing por­trait, choose a sim­ple back­ground and take only the time offered. Do not rearrange someone’s cloth­ing or inter­rupt a cer­e­mo­ny for anoth­er attempt. Seek a par­ent or guardian’s per­mis­sion for a close por­trait of a child and avoid pub­lish­ing iden­ti­fy­ing details with­out con­sent.

Phone Photography

Use the opti­cal zoom options your phone actu­al­ly pro­vides and avoid extreme dig­i­tal mag­ni­fi­ca­tion. Tap to focus, low­er expo­sure slight­ly if high­lights are clip­ping and shoot a short burst for move­ment. A wide shot with the event in its set­ting will often look bet­ter than a dis­tant, heav­i­ly cropped com­peti­tor. Save bat­tery for tick­ets and trans­port as well as pic­tures.

What Not to Do

• Do not enter horse-rac­ing routes or fin­ish run-out areas.
• Do not approach fast-mov­ing hors­es or stand between a horse and its han­dler.
• Do not cross an archery lane, obstruct a wrestler or ignore a mar­shal.
• Do not assume a large lens gives press access; check accred­i­ta­tion and equip­ment rules.
• Do not fly a drone with­out the required per­mis­sions.
• Do not pres­sure fam­i­lies or com­peti­tors into pos­ing, or use flash around hors­es.