The festivals worth planning a trip around. Dates follow their traditional pattern; confirm the exact days before booking travel.
Ngondo is the annual water festival of the Sawa coastal peoples, held on the banks of the Wouri at Douala. Its centre is the jengu ceremony, in which a sacred vessel is immersed in the river to commune with the water spirits.
Around it: pirogue and canoe races, traditional wrestling, dances, and the Miss Ngondo pageant. The festival was banned in 1981 and revived in 1991, and it is now one of the great cultural events of Central Africa.
Nguon is the Bamoun kingdom's royal festival and governance ritual, dating to the kingdom's founding in 1394. It was inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list in December 2023.
The 548th edition ran from 29 November to 8 December 2024. Expect royal processions, traditional justice rites, dances and the full pageantry of the Bamoun court.
The Race of Hope is one of Africa's great mountain races: 38 km from Molyko Stadium to the 4,040 m summit of Mount Cameroon and back, held every year since 1973.
The 31st edition ran on 21 February 2026 with 600 athletes from 14 countries. Sarah Etonge, the 'Queen of the Mountain', won it seven times.