Grand Opening of the First "Colorful Torch Festival" in Miyi County, Panzhihua in 2025 Ignites the Passion of Mid-summer
On the evening of July 19, the first "Colorful Torch Festival" folk cultural activity of Miyi County, Panzhihua, Sichuan Province in 2025 opened at the cultural squares in the south and north of Miyi County, bringing a carnival full of ethnic customs and cultural charm to the general public and tourists.
The first "Colorful Torch Festival" folk cultural activities feature a rich and diverse lineup, including the Torch Festival Carnival Gala, the traditional Thousand-Person Duoluohe folk performance, ethnic traditional sports competitions and Quyi cultural performances for public benefit.
At around 8 p.m., a wonderful prelude was kicked off in the national intangible cultural heritage drama Legend. On the stage, performers dressed in colorful traditional ethnic costumes, sang and danced, and their beautiful dance moves complemented the passionate music, igniting the atmosphere of the scene with fiery enthusiasm. Citizens and tourists deeply felt the passionate and unrestrained atmosphere of the Colorful Torch Festival in Miyi, and an exciting audio-visual feast was presented on the square.
All the guests and 1,100 torchbearers jointly lit the torches, which carry the colorful and beautiful implications of "red, black, yellow, green and blue". For a moment, several torches held high illuminated the night sky. Everyone held hands and formed a circle, dancing the cheerful Dati Dance. The atmosphere on site was once again pushed to a climax.
From July 18 to 20, a consumption scene event themed "Passion Ignites Miyi" with music and delicious food was held simultaneously in Miyi County. Numerous merchants rolled out special promotions and discounts. Mr. Wang, a business owner at Passion Square, remarked: “This year's Torch Festival surpassed even the Spring Festival in excitement - our staff are struggling to keep up with the crowds!" Over the years, Mi Yi's reputation for health and wellness tourism has spread far and wide, attracting many visitors from other regions. We're also continuously improving the quality of our services, hoping to provide good service to all the citizens and tourists who come to our store for consumption!”
As a traditional dance of the Yi ethnic group, “Duoluohe” carries millennia of history and culture. The Thousand-Person Duoluohe performance on July 20 attracted much attention. This traditional dance, which carries the thousand-year civilization of the Yi ethnic group, has been innovatively arranged through modern artistic techniques. More than 1,000 performers transformed into “waves of the Anning River”, and walked slowly with the rhythm, like a flowing cultural scroll, bringing new vitality to ancient folk customs.
As a famous tourist county in Sichuan Province, Miyi has been ranked among the top 100 counties for health and wellness tourism in China for five consecutive years due to its unique climate of "warm in winter and cool in summer". In 2024, the number of local tourists was over 10 million for the first time, and the tourism revenue was more than RMB 11 billion yuan, with year-on-year growth of 12.07% and 10.12% respectively. Currently, four provincial-level key cultural and tourism projects, including “Golden Cup Hillside · Miyi Sun Valley" are accelerating their development, while 14 infrastructure projects such as the access road to Zhuanxu Dragon Cave are progressing steadily.
Leveraging festive momentum, this small county is using the Torch Festival as a medium to extend the “Torch Festival” into “Torch Season” and “Consumption Season”, and turn the grand event into a joyful festival for the masses, a profit-increasing festival for businesses, and a festival for immersive cultural experience for tourists. (Text, images and videos by Hao Bin)
Translated by: Zhang Feng from Jinan University
Reviewed by: Mao Min from Beijing Yooyi Culture and Media Com., Ltd.
