The Inland Ocean Festival was established in Cambodia by Ocean Recovery Alliance and its partner NGO2 Bambooshoot Foundation in 2023 to celebrate Cambodia's "Inland Ocean" - the Tonle Sap Lake.  The event was organized in collaboration with a traditional local monk festival to celebrate the rising waters of the lake and pending monsoon season, with over 18,000 local community visitors in attendance.   The festival this year will still include the carnival and local sports competitions in Kampong Phluk on June 6th and 7th which always brings incredible local excitement and competition.

 

The Baby Lantern Puppet parade will now be in our new participating village of Kampong Khleang on the night of June 26th with over 100 lanterns, and our new Ankor Roo play on recycling, performed by a new local group of youth entertainers from Kampong Khleang itself.  You won't want to miss the launch of the amazing new "Entangled Propeller" sculpture of 5m wide.  This is a huge propeller, designed to look like a rattan fish trap, filled and uplit with plastic and old fishing nets, to draw awareness to the problem of propeller entaglements from plastic pollution in the lake for all of the boat owners.  This is based on our research report, the Propeller Project, conducted with Angkor University, to study and estimate the amount of time lost to boat owners in cutting off plastic and nets from their propellers every day they go in the water.  The event celebrates water appreciation, pride for the outdoors, and engages the community in programs for reducing plastic pollution via the Harvest Plastic Program.  It will also showcase some of the student art from schools in the lake and Siem Reap area, created in our Plastically Possible Student Art Challenge, where large animals, fish and birds are made from plastic pieces collected in their areas.

 

The 3rd annual Inland Ocean Festival is held each June, also in celebration of the UN’s World Ocean Day, and is part of the annual Water Rising Festival, honoring both the seasonal change in water levels.  The success of last two events supported by Smart and government departments for the environment and Minister of Tourism via the positive impacts these events bring to developing eco-tourism with meaning and engagement.  With over 180 villages in the lake area, the goal is to spread communication, education and awareness about water protection and the importance of reduced plastic pollution.  ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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Click here to watch a video of the Baby Lantern Puppet Parade and Night Aquarium.