The Phở Day 2025 festival will be launched on December 13 in HCM City, featuring 30 phở booths from across the country and abroad. — VNS Photo Hồng Linh

HCM CITY — The Day of Phở 2025 festival aims not only to promote phở to HCM City’s locals and foreign visitors but also to honour rice, a major ingredient of the dish, officials said at a press conference in HCM City on December 4.

The two-day festival, themed “Elevating Vietnamese Rice – Reaching the World” (Nâng tầm gạo Việt - Lan tỏa năm châu), will open on December 13 on Nguyễn Huệ Street in Sài Gòn Ward.

It is co-organised by Tuổi Trẻ (Youth) newspaper alongside other associations and departments.

Featuring 30 booths presenting different varieties of phở from across the country and abroad, the event is expected to attract over 50,000 visitors and serve 20,000 bowls.

Organisers said each bowl is fixed at VNĐ40,000, with 10 per cent of profits supporting locals affected by severe flooding in Đắk Lắk Province.

The event also offers various activities, including talk shows, musical performances and live cooking demonstrations.

In addition, organisers are calling on domestic and international phở eateries to celebrate the Day of Phở on December 12 by offering promotions, sharing local phở stories or promoting the dish globally.

Their stories will be recorded and shared on the festival’s media platforms.

Trần Xuân Toàn, deputy editor-in-chief of Tuổi Trẻ newspaper, said the journey of the day of phở has entered its ninth year since the newspaper initiated December 12 as Phở Day.

In addition, records of Vietnam Phở festivals held abroad show that the event has attracted significant international attention.

This includes the 2023 edition in Japan which attracted about 85,000 attendees, the 2024 event in South Korea with 28,000, and 35,000 visitors at the 2025 festival in Singapore.

This also opens opportunities for Vietnamese exporters of spices, ingredients and food.

The Vietnam Phở Festival was developed from the annual Day of Phở on December 12, with organisers stating it will be held in a different country each year.

Toàn emphasised that the Day of Phở is not only a culinary festival but also a way to promote tourism, trade and investment. — VNS