Dragon Bridge (Cầu Rồng) carries six lanes of traffic across the Han River in central Da Nang, and on some nights the steel dragon along its arches breathes fire and then sprays water. Travel pages give different answers about the show: some still say it runs on weekends only, and even the city's tourism portal says it takes five minutes. Holiday shows are decided one occasion at a time. So when does the dragon perform, how long does it last, and where should you stand?
When the Dragon Bridge breathes fire
Plan your evening around a Friday, Saturday or Sunday. The dragon breathes fire, then sprays water, at 9:00 pm every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and the show usually lasts about 15 minutes, says the company that runs the bridge. For some public holidays the city adds extra nights, deciding one holiday at a time, so check the holiday dates below.
That company, Danang Bridge and Road Joint Stock Company, says the dragon breathes fire in two rounds of nine bursts each, then sprays water in three rounds. The city's portal reported the same 15 minutes for the fire and water together during the April 30 and May 1 holiday in 2025. The tourism portal, Danang Fantasticity, gives a shorter figure of 2 minutes of fire followed by 3 minutes of water, which may describe a single round; the sources do not explain the difference.
Fridays were added in July 2022; before that the show ran on Saturdays and Sundays only, which is why some older pages still say weekends.
Extra shows on holidays
The tourism portal lists "major holidays" as show nights, but in practice the city decides each time whether to add nights, and it announced the extra nights in 2026 between 4 and 10 days ahead. Tuoi Tre newspaper called the six nights in a row for National Day 2026 a rare occasion. Recent extra shows:
| Occasion | Show nights | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Reunification Day and May Day 2025 | April 30 to May 4 | Five nights, 50th anniversary |
| Lunar New Year (Tet) 2026 | February 13 to 22 | Ten nights; Feb 16 (New Year's Eve): water only, at midnight |
| National Day 2026 | August 28 to September 2 | Six nights at 9:00 pm |
Unless the city announces extra nights, do not assume a holiday that falls midweek brings a show. As of October 2, 2026, the tourism portal had published no Tet 2027 schedule; the 2026 schedule came out 10 days before the first show. Holiday schedules usually appear first in Vietnamese, so search the tourism portal, danangfantasticity.com, for "cầu Rồng phun lửa" and use a translation app.
Shows can also be cancelled. During the Da Nang International Fireworks Festival (DIFF) in 2023, the city cancelled the fire and water show on all five fireworks nights, for safety and to ease traffic. If your visit falls on a fireworks night, check the tourism portal for a notice before you go.
Where to stand and how to stay dry
The dragon's head is at the east end of the bridge, facing the sea, where the bridge meets Tran Hung Dao and Vo Van Kiet streets in An Hai ward. Son Tra Night Market is right beside it. The tail is at the west end, on Bach Dang Street opposite the Museum of Cham Sculpture, in Hai Chau ward.
On the night of May 1, 2025, crowds filled the area around the bridge and the park below it, and from about 8:00 pm people gathered on both sidewalks of the bridge. The fire started right at 9:00 pm, the city's portal reported. A 2023 tourism portal page says people also watch from both banks of the Han River and from tall buildings nearby, and suggests arriving between 7:30 and 8:00 pm and bringing a raincoat or umbrella.
Pick your spot by how close you want to be. For the closest view, stand in the park at the east end or on the sidewalks beside the head. Be ready to get wet: in August 2026 the tourism portal warned that the water spray can get people near the head wet. For a drier view, this guide suggests moving further back along the bridge's sidewalks or onto the riverside walks on either bank; the east bank, by the night market, is the closer of the two.
No current source says exactly how traffic is handled. The 2023 tourism portal page says vehicles at both ends of the bridge are stopped for the 15 minutes of the show. In August 2026 the portal told visitors to follow traffic directions during the show. The city portal's photos of the May 1, 2025 show have cars and motorbikes on the road beside the dragon's head. Either way, watch from the sidewalk or the park, not the road.
Under a city rule reported in October 2024, tour buses may not stop at the bridge head or on the nearby stretch of Vo Van Kiet Street on show and night-market evenings. They drop off before 8:40 pm and pick up after 9:30 pm on Vo Van Kiet Street between Pham Cu Luong and Vo Nguyen Giap streets. If you come with a tour, expect to walk to the bridge.
About the bridge
Dragon Bridge is 666 meters long and 37.5 meters wide, with six traffic lanes and a sidewalk on each side. Work started on July 19, 2009, and it opened on March 29, 2013, the 38th anniversary of the liberation of Da Nang. The tourism portal credits the design to the US firm Ammann & Whitney, working with the Louis Berger Group. VnExpress reported in 2013 that the concept, shape and engineering came from the US, while Vietnamese contractors did the detailed and construction design.
When it was built, the design called for a dragon head 10 meters tall, 15 meters long and weighing 37 tonnes. The artist Pham Van Hang, who designed the head and tail, gave the dragon heart-shaped eyes and a tail shaped like a bouquet of flowers, he told VnExpress. The lights are not always one color: two photos from the tourism portal's June 2026 fireworks festival night show the head lit orange in one and the bridge lit green in another.
What is near the bridge
Son Tra Night Market is on Vo Van Kiet Street in An Hai ward, below the east end of the bridge, with a food section and a souvenir section. The tourism portal gives its hours as 5:00 to 11:00 pm "for reference", while a 2025 city plan for the market's site gave 5:30 pm to midnight. Vendors told Tuoi Tre newspaper in 2025 that it is busiest on show nights. For its prices and the July 2026 price check, see the Da Nang night market guide.
Next to the night market, on the marina on the east bank, are the Love Bridge (Cầu tàu Tình Yêu), a pier hung with heart-shaped lanterns, and the Carp Becoming a Dragon statue. The statue is 7.5 meters tall, weighs nearly 200 tonnes, was carved from five blocks of white marble and changes through nine colors, according to a 2023 tourism portal page. Neither the tourism portal's 2023 page nor its February 2026 page gives opening hours or fees for them.
For a full evening, this guide suggests seeing the Museum of Cham Sculpture at the west end before it closes at 5:00 pm, then walking east across the bridge. Eat at the night market from about 6:00 pm and find your spot by 8:00 pm. For more ideas, see things to do in Da Nang, and for the ward names used here, Da Nang's districts and wards.
Sources and how we checked
We checked every time, date and figure on October 2, 2026. Show times and holiday nights come from Danang Fantasticity, the city's tourism portal, from the Da Nang city portal and from Vietnamese news reports quoting the bridge's operating company and the city government. Bridge figures come from the tourism portal and a 2013 VnExpress report, ward names from the tourism portal's 2026 event pages, and the tour bus rule from a 2024 news report. Where sources disagree, on the length of the show and the night market's hours, we give both. In a web search on October 2, 2026, we found no announcement of extra show nights for April 30, 2026 or September 2, 2025, and no notice cancelling shows on fireworks festival nights in 2025 or 2026. For Tet 2027, we searched the tourism portal's posts since August 24, 2026, Tuoi Tre's fire-show news page and the web on October 2, 2026, and found no schedule.
- Danang Fantasticity: The Dragon Show (March 14, 2025); Dragon Bridge (in Vietnamese, September 15, 2015); National Day holiday events (August 20, 2026); show nights for National Day 2026 (in Vietnamese, August 24, 2026); Tet 2026 shows (February 4, 2026); shows suspended on DIFF 2023 nights (May 22, 2023); May 1, 2025 show (in Vietnamese, from the city portal, May 2, 2025); Da Nang at night (in Vietnamese, November 20, 2023); six local markets (in Vietnamese, June 12, 2026); Valentine's Day in Da Nang (February 13, 2026); Tet 2026 events and venues (in Vietnamese, January 16, 2026); first visitors of 2026 (in Vietnamese, February 17, 2026); third DIFF 2026 fireworks night (in Vietnamese, June 14, 2026).
- Da Nang city portal (in Vietnamese): fire and water show for April 30 and May 1 (May 2, 2025).
- Museum of Cham Sculpture (in Vietnamese): visitor information (opening hours).
- News reports (in Vietnamese): Tuoi Tre, six nights for National Day (August 24, 2026); Tuoi Tre, Friday shows added (July 29, 2022); Bao Da Nang, National Day nights (August 24, 2026) and ten nights for Tet (February 6, 2026); Van Hoa, Tet 2026 schedule (February 3, 2026); Bao Dau Thau, no shows on fireworks nights (May 21, 2023); PLO, tour bus drop-off rules (October 21, 2024); VnExpress, the bridge's design (February 16, 2013); Tuoi Tre, Son Tra Night Market (September 27, 2025); Van Hoa, the night market's new site (April 23, 2025).
- Photos: benduthuyendanang.com, Dragon Bridge show schedule (in Vietnamese, June 17, 2025); Novotel Danang Premier Han River, Dragon Bridge (in Vietnamese, August 28, 2025).
Updated: October 5, 2026
