Elephants are living icons for the Laotians; there are historical associations and symbolic connotations attached to them. Every year, the Elephant Festival is celebrated in Sayabouly to demonstrate the cultural and traditional ties between the animals and the community. Increasingly, it is also used to draw attention to the endangered status of the elephants.
The festival is a vibrant and nostalgic event that attracts top-ranking government officials - even the President of Lao PDR had attended. It starts before dawn, with performances by different ethnic people in their traditional attire. Then comes the elephants, lined up in a majestic procession. There can be up to 100 elephants that are competing for different prizes: longest trunk, biggest, most beautiful, etc.. They are joined by floats and performers, whose singing and dancing create the festive mood. After the procession are many elephant-led events, such as football, painting, and racing, before the most important act, the basi (blessing).
