Sea Festival 2026: Dates, Tickets & Venue (Sihanoukville)

Three days when the coast is the stage

Sea Festival is Cambodia’s coastal party. Each year it moves to a different seaside province to promote beach tourism, and for December 18–20, 2026, the host is Sihanoukville. It brings concerts, food and beach events to the country’s largest port city.

The setting is a city on a peninsula, with a string of sandy bays running along its southern and western edges. Fishing boats work the water offshore. Ferries leave from town for Koh Rong and Koh Rong Samloem. For three days the beachfront becomes a stage, a food court and a meeting point for families who have driven down from Phnom Penh.

What the weekend looks like

The facts available cover three parts of the programme:

• Concerts: live music on the coast across the three days.
• Food: coastal Cambodian cooking, where seafood is the obvious draw.
• Beach events: activities on the sand and by the water.

No lineup or schedule appears in the information here, so this guide does not guess at headliners or set times. What you can count on is Cambodian seaside food at its usual best. Grilled squid on skewers, crab, fish amok steamed in banana leaf and fresh coconuts are standard along this coast.

Dates, tickets and the venue question

The dates are December 18–20, 2026. Sea Festival is a government-backed promotion of seaside tourism, not a commercial gated festival. Cambodia’s previous editions have been run as town-wide public celebrations along the shore.

Sihanoukville has several candidate stretches of sand. Ochheuteal and Serendipity beaches sit on the southern side of town. Independence Beach and Victory Beach face west, and Otres runs further south towards Ream. The exact festival grounds are not part of the facts here, so this guide names the beaches rather than inventing a site.

Getting to Sihanoukville

The city is far easier to reach than it used to be.

• By road: the Phnom Penh–Sihanoukville Expressway, open since 2022, cut the drive from the capital to roughly two hours. Buses and minivans run the route all day.
• By air: Sihanoukville International Airport (KOS) is at Ream, about 18 km east of the centre, with domestic and regional flights.
• By rail: Royal Railway trains link Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville. They are slower but more relaxed than the road.

In town, tuk-tuks and the ride-hailing apps PassApp and Grab handle short hops between the beaches. The Golden Lions roundabout is the landmark most drivers use for directions.

Moving through the crowds like a Cambodian family

Festival nights here are social, loud and very local in spirit.

• Money: US dollars and Cambodian riel are both in everyday use. Small vendors often give change in riel, and small notes in either currency make food stalls quicker.
• Eating: Cambodian families usually spread out on mats or plastic chairs and share several plates. Ordering a mix of grilled seafood and rice for the table works better than one dish each.
• Tipping: it isn’t expected at street stalls. Rounding up for tuk-tuk drivers and in sit-down restaurants is common and appreciated.
• Dress: swimwear belongs on the sand. Away from the beach, and especially at Wat Leu on the hill above town, covered shoulders and knees are the norm, and shoes come off before entering temple buildings.

Because December falls in Cambodia’s high season, hotels near the main beaches fill quickly. Many visitors stay a little inland or out at Otres and ride in each evening.

Beyond the festival grounds

Mid-December is dry season on the coast. Days are warm, evenings are cooler and the sea is usually calm. That makes the days around the festival good for side trips:

• Koh Rong and Koh Rong Samloem: speedboat ferries from Sihanoukville reach both islands, which are known for white sand and clear water.
• Ream National Park: mangroves, forest and quiet beaches east of the city, close to the airport.
• Wat Leu: the hilltop temple with views back over the port and the bays.

Many attendees treat the festival as the centre of a longer coastal trip and add a night or two on the islands either side of the three days.