Top 10 Malaysian Festivals & Cultural Events in 2026

The end of Ramadan is the most joyous celebration in Malaysia's Muslim-majority society — a month of nightly bazaar visits, predawn suhoor meals, and communal prayer followed by a national holiday in which kampung villages across Malaysia are flooded with returning urban family members, open houses are offered to neighbours of all religions, and rendang, ketupat, and lemang fill every household. The KLCC park's Hari Raya light display is a beloved annual tradition.

Malaysia's Chinese New Year celebrations are among the most elaborate outside China itself — 15 days of lion dance performances, firecracker processions, temple visits, and family reunion dinners that fill the streets of Penang's George Town, KL's Chinatown, and Johor Bahru's Chinese quarter with a colour and energy that has to be experienced to be believed. The Chap Goh Meh (15th night) celebration in Penang attracts visitors from across Asia.

Held annually in July at the Sarawak Cultural Village near Kuching, the Rainforest World Music Festival is Asia's premier world music event — a three-day outdoor concert where musicians from over 20 countries perform alongside Sarawak's indigenous musicians under a literal rainforest canopy. It has been named one of the top 25 music festivals in the world by CNN and draws international audiences each year.

The Festival of Lights is celebrated across Malaysia with a particular intensity in KL's Brickfields Little India district, where the streets are lined with oil lamps, rangoli artworks, and garlands of marigold for weeks before the festival proper. The evening of Deepavali itself brings fireworks visible across the city and open houses where Tamil sweets and curries are pressed on every passing guest regardless of religion.

The Buddhist festival celebrating the birth, enlightenment, and death of Gautama Buddha is observed with candlelit processions, temple celebrations, and the release of caged birds and animals throughout Malaysia. The procession along Jalan Masjid India in KL, and the spectacular lantern displays at the Thai temples of Penang and Kedah, attract thousands of participants from every ethnic community.

The annual Kadazan-Dusun harvest festival held at the end of May in Sabah is a joyous celebration of the rice harvest and indigenous culture — featuring the Unduk Ngadau beauty pageant (named after the spirit of the paddy), traditional music on the sompoton mouth organ, and communal tapai rice wine drinking that creates one of East Malaysia's most genuinely communal cultural events.

The annual Sarawak Regatta on the Kuching waterfront is one of Malaysia's most spirited sporting festivals — a two-day boat racing event on the Sarawak River in which teams from Sarawak's indigenous communities and visiting nations compete in traditional longboats while the surrounding waterfront fills with food stalls, cultural performances, and enthusiastic local crowds.

The 15th night of the eighth lunar month transforms Malaysia's Chinese neighbourhoods into a lantern-lit celebration — children carry traditional and novelty lanterns through the streets while mooncakes of every filling variation are exchanged as gifts between families, businesses, and colleagues. The giant lantern displays in Penang's clan jetties and KL's Sri Petaling area are the most photogenic in Malaysia.

A month-long series of harvest thanksgiving celebrations across Sabah in May, culminating in a state-level festival at the Kadazan-Dusun Cultural Association in Penampang, Pesta Keamatan centres on the Unduk Ngadau pageant, traditional rice wine ceremonies presided over by the female bobohizan priestess, and a joyful communal spirit that opens the celebration to visitors of every background.

The end of Ramadan is the most joyous celebration in Malaysia's Muslim-majority society — a month of nightly bazaar visits, predawn suhoor meals, and communal prayer followed by a national holiday in which kampung villages across Malaysia are flooded with returning urban family members, open houses are offered to neighbours of all religions, and rendang, ketupat, and lemang fill every household. The KLCC park's Hari Raya light display is a beloved annual tradition.

Malaysia's Chinese New Year celebrations are among the most elaborate outside China itself — 15 days of lion dance performances, firecracker processions, temple visits, and family reunion dinners that fill the streets of Penang's George Town, KL's Chinatown, and Johor Bahru's Chinese quarter with a colour and energy that has to be experienced to be believed. The Chap Goh Meh (15th night) celebration in Penang attracts visitors from across Asia.

Held annually in July at the Sarawak Cultural Village near Kuching, the Rainforest World Music Festival is Asia's premier world music event — a three-day outdoor concert where musicians from over 20 countries perform alongside Sarawak's indigenous musicians under a literal rainforest canopy. It has been named one of the top 25 music festivals in the world by CNN and draws international audiences each year.

The Festival of Lights is celebrated across Malaysia with a particular intensity in KL's Brickfields Little India district, where the streets are lined with oil lamps, rangoli artworks, and garlands of marigold for weeks before the festival proper. The evening of Deepavali itself brings fireworks visible across the city and open houses where Tamil sweets and curries are pressed on every passing guest regardless of religion.

The Buddhist festival celebrating the birth, enlightenment, and death of Gautama Buddha is observed with candlelit processions, temple celebrations, and the release of caged birds and animals throughout Malaysia. The procession along Jalan Masjid India in KL, and the spectacular lantern displays at the Thai temples of Penang and Kedah, attract thousands of participants from every ethnic community.

The annual Kadazan-Dusun harvest festival held at the end of May in Sabah is a joyous celebration of the rice harvest and indigenous culture — featuring the Unduk Ngadau beauty pageant (named after the spirit of the paddy), traditional music on the sompoton mouth organ, and communal tapai rice wine drinking that creates one of East Malaysia's most genuinely communal cultural events.

The annual Sarawak Regatta on the Kuching waterfront is one of Malaysia's most spirited sporting festivals — a two-day boat racing event on the Sarawak River in which teams from Sarawak's indigenous communities and visiting nations compete in traditional longboats while the surrounding waterfront fills with food stalls, cultural performances, and enthusiastic local crowds.

The 15th night of the eighth lunar month transforms Malaysia's Chinese neighbourhoods into a lantern-lit celebration — children carry traditional and novelty lanterns through the streets while mooncakes of every filling variation are exchanged as gifts between families, businesses, and colleagues. The giant lantern displays in Penang's clan jetties and KL's Sri Petaling area are the most photogenic in Malaysia.

A month-long series of harvest thanksgiving celebrations across Sabah in May, culminating in a state-level festival at the Kadazan-Dusun Cultural Association in Penampang, Pesta Keamatan centres on the Unduk Ngadau pageant, traditional rice wine ceremonies presided over by the female bobohizan priestess, and a joyful communal spirit that opens the celebration to visitors of every background.