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Witness / Attend in Shandur
Shandur Polo Festival
A high grass pass at around 3,700 metres on the watershed between Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral, home to the world's highest polo ground. Each summer the Shandur Polo Festival brings the teams of Gilgit and Chitral together for three days of freestyle polo, folk music and camping on the pass. Reached by a long, rough mountain road from either side, and usually approached for this listing from the Gilgit side up the Ghizer valley.
Organized by Tourism, Sports, Culture, Archaeology and Museums Department, Government of Gilgit-Baltistan, which publishes the official dates and program.
Dates & details verified against: Regional tourism board ↗
Why here
The Shandur Polo Festival is the highest polo tournament on earth, played each summer on a natural turf ground at 3,700 metres on the Shandur Pass, the watershed between Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral. For three days the teams of Gilgit and Chitral meet in freestyle polo, the wild original form of the game with almost no rules and no umpire to speak of, to the beat of drums and surnai pipes. A tent city of several thousand spectators, players and traders springs up on the pass for the festival, with folk music and dancing in the evenings, trout in the nearby lakes and horsemanship on show all day. The setting is the draw as much as the match: a green shelf of grass ringed by bare peaks, reached only by a long, rough mountain road from either side. It is one of the great spectacles of the Karakoram, a local event that draws travellers from Europe, America and the Gulf without ever becoming a packaged show.
Best months
The festival falls in early summer, and the pass at 3,700 metres is cold at night and can see rain or even snow, so warm layers and a good sleeping bag matter if you camp. Days are bright and the sun is strong at altitude. Almost everyone sleeps in the festival tent village or in tents brought by operators, since there is no permanent accommodation on Shandur. The road in is long and rough from both the Gilgit and Chitral sides and can wash out, so allow buffer days around the fixed festival dates.
Getting there & around
Shandur is reached by a long 4WD day on rough road from either Gilgit-Baltistan or Chitral. The approach used for this listing is from the Gilgit side, up the Ghizer valley through Gupis and Phander to the pass, around eight to ten hours from Gilgit. There is no accommodation on Shandur itself, so operators bring tents and set up in the festival camp, and you need warm bedding, a food supply and a capable vehicle. Access from the Chitral side crosses into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Confirm the year's dates and the road and security situation before committing, as both can change.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (2)
Apricot Tours
OutfitterApricot Tours is a Pakistan-based operator with its office in F-11 Islamabad and liaison offices in Tajikistan and Afghanistan, running guided cultural and adventure tours with guest reviews going back to 2011. It operates its own multi-day Shandur Polo Festival journeys, timed to the tournament at the pass and combining the polo ground with the Ghizer and Phander valley approach, and it arranges the camping, transport and permits in-house rather than reselling another company's departure.
Karakorum Adventure
OutfitterKarakorum Adventure is a Pakistani tour operator that runs cultural and adventure trips across Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral, departing from Islamabad. Among its set programmes is a fourteen-day Shandur Polo Festival tour built around the tournament at the world's highest polo ground, taking in the Ghizer valley and Phander on the Gilgit approach. It fields its own guides and vehicles for the high, rough road to Shandur and handles the festival camping and logistics directly.