Penang Festival Calendar 2026
Subscribe once and never mis-date Thaipusam, Chinese New Year, the Nine Emperor Gods or George Town Festival again — verified dates, kept current, in your own calendar app.
Penang’s festivals shift every year across three different calendars — Chinese lunar, Hindu/Tamil, and Islamic (Hijri) — so almost nobody keeps an accurate list, and the ones that exist go stale. This calendar is maintained: subscribe once and every major Penang festival lands in your phone or laptop calendar, updating automatically as dates are confirmed each year.
Subscribe to the calendar
Subscribing keeps your calendar in sync — corrections and new festivals appear on their own (calendar apps refresh subscribed feeds every ~12–24 hours, not instantly). Downloading imports a one-time snapshot that won’t update.
What’s on in Penang, 2026
Every major festival with a verified 2026 date. Tap a festival for the full guide.
February
Thaipusam
1 Feb 2026Malaysia-wide Thaipusam. In Penang the Nattukottai Chettiar silver chariot and kavadi procession winds from George Town up to the Waterfall Hilltop Temple (the Chetti Pusam eve procession runs 31 Jan).
Hindu / Tamil calendar — date shifts yearly
Penang Hot Air Balloon Fiesta
13–15 Feb 2026Dozens of hot air balloons over George Town — dawn mass ascension, evening night glow, and tethered rides at the Polo Ground.
Announced each year by the organiser — dates vary
Chinese New Year
17–18 Feb 2026Year of the Fire Horse. Kek Lok Si light-up, Khoo Kongsi lion dances, the Clan Jetties and Chingay parade — Penang at its most spectacular. (Public holiday 17–18 Feb.)
Chinese lunar calendar — date shifts yearly
March
Chap Goh Mei
3 Mar 2026The 15th and final night of Chinese New Year — Penang’s "Chinese Valentine’s Day", when oranges are thrown into the sea at the Esplanade.
Chinese lunar calendar — date shifts yearly
Hari Raya Aidilfitri
21–22 Mar 2026anticipated · moon-sightingThe end of Ramadan: open houses, traditional Malay feasts, and mosque celebrations across the island (Balik Pulau, Teluk Kumbar). An extra public holiday was declared 20 Mar.
Islamic (Hijri) calendar — shifts yearly, set by moon-sighting
July
George Town World Heritage City Day
7 Jul 2026Penang state public holiday marking George Town’s UNESCO World Heritage inscription (7 July 2008) — heritage events across the historic core.
Fixed Gregorian dates — same every year
Penang Bon Odori Festival
18 Jul 2026Japanese summer dance festival at the Esplanade, organised by the Malaysian Japanese Society — yukata, taiko drumming and food stalls.
Announced each year by the organiser — dates vary
August
George Town Festival
1–9 Aug 2026Penang’s premier arts festival — 17th edition, theme "Beyond Boundaries": 40+ programmes across theatre, dance, music and visual art, 80%+ free.
Announced each year by the organiser — dates vary
Hungry Ghost Festival (Phor Tor)
13 Aug – 10 Sep 2026The seventh-lunar-month "ghost month" (main day 27 Aug): island-wide getai street opera, paper-effigy burning and roadside offerings. Now on Penang’s state heritage gazette.
Chinese lunar calendar — date shifts yearly
Recurs yearly — exact 2026 dates not yet announced
These happen every year but the organiser hasn’t published exact 2026 dates yet. We add them to the subscribable feed once a date is confirmed — we don’t guess.
Penang International Dragon Boat Festival
June 2026 (exact dates announced yearly)International dragon boat racing at Teluk Bahang. Exact dates are released by the organiser closer to the event.
Durian Season
May–August 2026 (peak June–July)Penang’s beloved Musang King, D24 and Black Thorn durians, eaten fresh at Balik Pulau orchards. A harvest window, not a fixed date.
Penang International Food Festival
Throughout July 2026 (programme announced yearly)A month of food trails, chef demos and hawker showcases across the island. The full programme is published each July.
Penang Bridge International Marathon (PBIM)
November 2026 (exact date announced yearly)Malaysia’s largest marathon — 40,000+ runners across the Penang Bridge. The race date is confirmed by the organiser each year.
Embed this calendar
Run a Penang events or travel page? Drop our always-current calendar into your site — you get maintenance-free accurate festival dates, no lunar-date research required. Copy this snippet:
<iframe src="https://www.visitpenang.com/festivals/calendar.ics" title="Penang Festival Calendar" width="100%" height="600" loading="lazy" style="border:1px solid #e5e7eb;border-radius:12px"></iframe>Prefer a direct feed? Point any calendar app or community calendar at https://www.visitpenang.com/festivals/calendar.ics.
Festival calendar FAQs
How do I subscribe to the Penang festival calendar?
Tap one of the Subscribe buttons above. "Add to Google Calendar" opens Google and asks you to confirm; "Apple Calendar / Outlook" opens a webcal:// link your device handles automatically; "Microsoft 365" adds it to Outlook on the web. Once subscribed, the festivals appear in your normal calendar app and update automatically whenever we correct or add a date.
What is the difference between subscribing and downloading the .ics file?
Subscribing (the webcal:// link) keeps your calendar in sync — if a lunar date is corrected or a new festival is added, your calendar updates on its own. Downloading the .ics file imports a one-time snapshot; it will not update later. For a year-round calendar that shifts across three lunar systems, subscribing is the better choice.
How quickly do subscribed dates update?
Google Calendar and Apple Calendar refresh subscribed feeds roughly every 12–24 hours, not instantly. So if we correct a date, it will appear in your calendar within about a day rather than the moment we change it. This is a limitation of the calendar apps, not the feed.
Why do Penang festival dates change every year?
Penang’s festivals follow three different calendars: Chinese New Year, Chap Goh Mei, the Hungry Ghost Festival and the Nine Emperor Gods follow the Chinese lunar calendar; Thaipusam and Deepavali follow the Hindu/Tamil calendar; Hari Raya follows the Islamic (Hijri) calendar and is set by moon-sighting. Because all three shift against the Gregorian calendar, the dates move every year — which is exactly why a maintained, subscribable calendar is useful.
Are these dates confirmed for 2026?
Yes — every dated festival here is a verified 2026 date checked against primary sources (Malaysian public-holiday gazette, organiser announcements, temple notices). Hari Raya and Wesak are gazette-anticipated dates subject to official moon-sighting confirmation, and are labelled "anticipated". Festivals whose exact 2026 dates have not yet been published (e.g. the Dragon Boat Festival, the food festival, PBIM) are listed separately with their month, but are deliberately left out of the feed rather than guessed.
Can I add this calendar to my own website?
Yes. Copy the embed snippet near the bottom of this page to drop the calendar into your own Penang events or travel page. You can also point any calendar app or community calendar at the feed URL directly. We keep the dates current, so embedded copies stay accurate without you re-researching lunar dates every year.