By Diana M. Cleto
The 2025 Banh Mi Festival, held from March 21 to 23 in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), was a resounding success, attracting thousands of visitors eager to experience Vietnam’s most beloved street food.
Grand opening and record-breaking attendance
During the grand opening ceremony, Nguyen Thi Khanh, president of the HCMC Tourism Association, highlighted that the Banh Mi Festival is a celebration of Vietnam’s rich culinary culture and a platform to showcase the iconic sandwich on the global stage.
In a press conference earlier this year, the association predicted that over 150,000 visitors would attend the festival, and early reports suggest that the event lived up to expectations.
A representative from the organizing committee reported a 30 percent increase in visitor numbers on the opening day compared to previous years.
A diverse showcase of banh mi and more
The festival also expanded in scale, featuring more than 150 stalls – a 30 percent increase from the past two editions.
It brought together well-established banh mi brands with over 50 years of history, as well as restaurants, spice suppliers, ingredient providers and companies specializing in bread-making technology.
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Visitors were treated to a feast not only for their taste buds but also for their eyes. Highlights of the festival included a grand welcoming gate decorated with about 1,100 loaves of real and model banh mi, a unique boat featuring 100 seafood banh mi varieties, a bamboo road experience area showcasing animal-shaped banh mi and an exhibition on the evolution of banh mi.
Beyond tasting, visitors also had the opportunity to witness the bread-making process firsthand. Several booths hosted live demonstrations, with the ACB booth drawing attention by installing a full production line and oven to bake fresh bread onsite.
Promoting banh mi to the world
On the final day of the festival, the HCMC Department of Tourism, in collaboration with the HCMC Tourism Magazine, organized a conference titled “Vietnamese Banh Mi – Global Culinary Value, Spreading to Five Continents”.
The event focused on strategies to promote banh mi worldwide and included discussions between experts, chefs and culinary enthusiasts.
Le Truong Hien Hoa, deputy director of the department, highlighted the need for banh mi-centered tourism offerings. He suggested establishing banh mi tour routes, specialty streets and interactive museum experiences to educate visitors on the dish’s cultural significance, history and evolution.
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