17th Annual Mongolian Festival
Explore the culture and heritage of Mongolia at this annual folk music, dance and food celebration. But most people come to see the traditional Mongolian wrestling (make sure to check out the wrestlers’ amazing underoos) along with demonstrations of archery and tug of war.
Mongolian Naadam Festival
Saturday, July 12, 2014 | Noon to 5 p.m.
Hellman Hollow (West Meadow), Golden Gate Park.
$5 adults, kids free.
Mongolian Wrestling & Dancing
The main attraction of Naadam is the wrestling competition. Wearing amazingly tight and colorful underwear, the goal of the match is to get your opponent to touch us upper body, knee or elbow to the ground. One of the defining features of Mongolian wrestling is a dance wrestlers perform as they enter the contest field and exiting at the end.
“Horse Racing” Back in Mongolia up to 1000 horses from any part of Mongolia can be chosen to participate. For the Naadam Festival, here in San Francisco the kids are footracing with toy horses replaces the horse race.
Mongolian Archery The third main sport of Naadam is the Mongolian archery with targets installed with short wooden tubes with a little ball inside placed on top another formed as a pyramid shape
Sheep Ankle Bones Another popular Naadam activity is the playing of games using shagai, sheep anklebones. The participants
Food & Vendor Booths There will be a food booths that will serve with the main dish of Naadam “khushuur”, deep-fried pockets of dough stuffed with minced beef or lamb, garlic and onions. The will be a booths with a variety of Mongolian handmade souvenirs, paintings and other local flair that Mongolian artists will bring.
