Kurultai – Bucharest Turkic Festival

The International KURULTAI Festival (Romanian: Festivalul Internațional Kurultai) is a seven-day celebration of intangible cultural heritage — traditional sports, games, music, crafts, cuisine and living traditions of the Turkic world — organized by the Democratic Union of Tatars of Romania (Uniunea Democrată Tătară, UDT).

Google Maps location of the main event activities can be found here.

The competitive core of the festival: 15 traditional sports and games, of which 7 are on UNESCO intangible heritage lists. Named disciplines include:

• TogyzQumalak / TokuzKorgool — a nine-stone mancala-family board game of Central Asian origin (Kazakhstan/Kyrgyzstan); the 2026 program featured the World Championship of TogyzQumalak/TokuzKorgool.
• Asyk — a bone-and-shooter game (ankle-bone flicking) of Central Asian steppe cultures; a World Cup of Asyk was part of the program.
• Gocurme-Mangala and Bestemshe — other traditional games in tournament format.
• Kurash / Kureş — belt-wrestling, a Turkic martial sport.
• Alpagut — a traditional martial art.
• Historical archery (arc istoric).
  Participation in tournaments is reserved to registered competitors; visitors watch, and the “UNESCO Games Caravan” takes practical workshops into Bucharest schools between 21–24 September (target: 1,000 children at workshops, according to the festival site).

Tickets: There are none. Entry to every event of the International KURULTAI Festival 2026 is free