The Ladakh Festival takes place every year during the first fifteen days of September. We waited an extra week for this, and even though we only stayed for the first day of festivities, I think it was definitely worth it. The program consists of: polo matches, archery, and traditional and religious dances, singing, and costumes. On the opening day there was to be a parade through town that ended on the polo grounds.
After breakfast, Matt and I headed up to the polo ground to make sure we got good seats for the show.  We were able to get the best seats in the tourist section in terms of photo opportunities, but found out that we would have to wait longer than we expected for the festivities to begin. Even though the schedule stated the event was to start at 10:00am at the polo ground, it really meant that was the time the parade was set to commence. The parade wouldn’t reach the polo ground until at least an hour and a half later. And so we waited. We watched as the different sections filled—a platform for the monks, chairs and tarps for the tourists, tarps and the wall for locals, and the important people in the community there were couches and upholstered in the shade in the stands, complete with name cards showing who was to sit where. Painters finished the festival sign on one of the buildings.
A group of men put the final strands of decorative garlands. We spotted the geology professor we met on the shuttle from our hotel to the airport in Finland (he was on the same flight to India). I got antsy and bored and decided to go back down the hill to watch the parade, while Matt graciously stayed behind to save the seats. After watching most of the cultural groups go by, I discovered that watching the crowd was just as, if not more, entertaining. Everyone was so engrossed in the parade, that they didn’t notice me watching them and sneaking in a few photos. I loved seeing all the little kids bundled up in sweaters and knit caps.
The parade was made up of different cultural groups from various villages with the closest thing to a float being a truck that was carrying some monks and a large photo of the Dalai Lama. Each group was preceded by a few drums and a flute player, and occasionally they would stop to do a quick dance. The traditional dress that people were sporting was amazing. After three weeks of passing by different souvenir shops through town, I was finally able to see real people wearing the hats and jewelry the way it was meant to be worn.
After watching the parade for a while I headed back up to the polo ground, knowing I would have an opportunity to see all the groups again when they entered the polo ground. When they finally made it, the empty space around our seats was swarmed with tourists and their big cameras, each one wanting to get the good shot, and in the process getting upset at the ones who managed to get in front of them. Having a chair in the front gave Matt an advantage, and luckily he wasn’t too affected by the enthusiastic photographers. After all the groups paraded into the field, several speeches from various tourism commissioners and festival chairs were given, and then several villages performed for the crowd. All in all it was a good day, and a nice end to our time in Ladakh.