Shandur Polo Festival: Dates, Getting There and What to Expect

This is polo in its old mountain form: six riders a side, few rules, no umpires, low stone walls in place of boards, and matches of about an hour in two halves. Teams from the valleys on each side play through the first days, and the festival ends with the final between Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral, watched by thousands. Around the matches there's music, folk dancing, food stalls and paragliding displays.

In 2026 Gilgit-Baltistan beat Chitral 6–5 in the final, its first win at Shandur since 2014; Chitral had won in 2025.

The festival's traditional dates are 7–9 July, but it has moved in recent years: it began on 20 June in 2025, and in 2026 it ran from Thursday 11 to Saturday 13 June, brought forward because Muharram fell over the usual dates.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan tourism departments set the dates each spring, and 2027's haven't been announced yet. Tour operators' published 2027 dates are placeholders, so don't book flights around them. Ask us in spring 2027 for the confirmed dates.

The polo ground lies on Shandur Top, a broad pass at about 3,700 m between Upper Chitral in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Ghizer district of Gilgit-Baltistan, beside Shandur Lake. Because the pass sits on the boundary between the two regions, the festival is organised jointly by their tourism departments, with support from the army.

From Gilgit, the road runs west for about 200–215 km through Gahkuch, Gupis and Phander to Shandur: a long, rough day by jeep, and many groups break the journey at Phander. From Chitral it's about 150–170 km via Mastuj and Laspur. Flights to Gilgit and Chitral depend on the weather, so allow spare days either side.

For international visitors the Gilgit side is the one to plan around. Chitral is in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the US State Department advises against all travel, and in October 2026 the UK advised against the road to Chitral.

A tent village goes up at the ground for the festival, and the valleys below have simple guesthouses, at Phander on the Gilgit side and Laspur and Mastuj on the Chitral side. Arrive a day early for a better camping spot and an easier jeep booking.

At 3,700 m the afternoons are mild, about 15–20 °C, but nights fall to near freezing, so bring a warm jacket, a hat and a good sleeping bag, and give yourself a few days at altitude first. Carry cash: Gilgit and Chitral have the last reliable ATMs.

Chitral and Gilgit have played polo at Shandur since the 1930s; the first tournament is usually dated to 1936, and the British officer Evelyn Cobb is credited with starting the tradition, and with playing by moonlight on the pass. Local accounts trace mountain polo here much further back. Today it is one of the few places where you can watch the freestyle game that the valleys of the Karakoram and Hindu Kush have played for centuries.