The World Nomad Games is the hot topic right now, with the fifth one currently taking place in Astana. More and more people around the world are learning about the event, and each time it is held, a larger number of athletes, countries and spectators attend.
Held every two years, with the first three (2014, 2016 and 2018) all being hosted by Kyrgyzstan, the country responsible for the event’s existence, the fourth edition was the first to be hosted in another country – Turkey. However, as you might realise, that would have been in 2020, and I don’t know if anyone reading this will have heard of it, but a little thing happened in 2020 called COVID, which prevented the games from happening. So the fourth was rescheduled for 2022, and was held in Turkey.
We were glad that for this year’s event it would be back in Central Asia, though Astana (the host city in Kazakhstan this year) is about as far from Cholpon Ata (the previous host town in Kyrgyzstan) in most ways as you can possibly get.
Cholpon Ata is a small town, a few hours drive from Bishkek, on the northern shore of Issik Kol, with the second largest alpine lake in the world to the south, and the mountains that form the border between Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan to the north. Astana is Kazakhstan’s futuristic capital city, custom built for the purpose of being the capital, with funky modern architecture, and surrounded by thousands of kilometres of steppe.
But the question on everyone’s mind is “where will the next one be?”.
Well, until very recently there was no suggestion of what the answer to that question might be. Those of us involved in Central Asian tourism have of course been really hoping that it would be in Central Asia again, but will it return to Kyrgyzstan? Or if Kazakhstan does a good job, would they get it again? Or would Uzbekistan or Kyrgyzstan get a go? Or even, would it be Turkmenistan?
Then a few days before the games started this year (on September 8 th ), there was a rumour that it would be in Uzbekistan, and another rumour that it would be in Kyrgyzstan, but still nothing was confirmed. However, just in the last 24 hours, Altynbek Maksutov, the Minister of Culture, Information, Sports and Youth Policy in Kyrgyzstan, has made an announcement that it will in fact be in Kyrgyzstan again.
There hasn’t been mention yet of the specific location, however we’re expecting that it will be in Cholpon Ata again. It will be very interesting to see though how they will set up and manage it. The three Kyrgyz editions were very informal and relaxed and on a pretty small scale. They were also pretty disorganised and not overly professional, but that was nice, as it was just a charming and very un-commercial event. Astana’s version has been in many ways much better organised, and clearly with a much higher budget. But it’s a different kettle of fish now compared to 2018 when Kyrgyzstan last held it, as there are so many more people around the world that know about it and are interested in attending. So it will be interesting to see how Kyrgyzstan rises to the occasion.
Let’s see what Kyrgyzstan can do with this epic and unique event in 2026! Stay tuned for our tours , as we’re working on them right now.
