Kandy Esala Perahera 2027: expected dates, seats and how to plan

The 2027 dates: what is fixed and what is not

The Sri Dalada Maligawa, the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, holds its Esala Perahera in July or August, in the lunar month of Esala or Nikini. It fixes the nights anew each year and announces them at a media briefing; in 2026 that briefing took place on 8 July, about six weeks before the first procession. The 2027 programme has not been announced yet. What the official calendars do give is the holidays around it:

Our Sri Lanka festivals calendar has the rest of the year's holidays from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka's 2027 list.

The 2026 festival shows the usual shape. The temple's schedule ran the five Kumbal processions from 18 to 22 August and the five Randoli processions from 23 to 27 August, each starting in the evening between 6.28 PM and 7.00 PM. The water-cutting ceremony followed at 1.28 AM on 28 August and the Day Perahera at 2.18 PM the same day. The 2027 nights and start times will be different.

Ten nights and a day: how the festival unfolds

The temple calls the Perahera the oldest cultural event in the world. It grew from a procession held in Anuradhapura after the Tooth Relic reached Sri Lanka in 310 A.D., in the hope of timely rain and a good harvest, and the procession that parades the streets today is built around the Perahera casket, which, in the temple's words, is considered as the living Lord Buddha. The relic itself stays out of sight; what passes you on the street is the casket under its canopy, carried by the temple's ceremonial tusker. The 2026 festival was, by the temple's count, the 1716th.

It starts quietly. According to the official festival website, run by the temple's Media Bureau, the festival opens with the Kap Situveema, when a young jackfruit tree is cut and planted at each of the four Devales, the shrines of the guardian gods Natha, Vishnu and Kataragama and the goddess Pattini. The first five nights are the Kumbal Perahera. The same site describes them as a semi-procession: the Nilames, the lay officials of the temple and the Devales, do not walk, and the drummers and tuskers appear without their ceremonial costumes.

The next five nights are the Randoli Perahera, when the four Devales join with their own decorated palanquins, and the last of them, the Maha Randoli or Grand Randoli, is the grandest night of all: tuskers garlanded and in gold-stitched cloths, drummers in full ceremonial dress, and the Diyawadana Nilame, the temple's chief lay custodian, in a newly stitched costume. In 2026 the temple described a night lit by copra torches, with the tusker Kataragama Wasana bearing the golden casket.

After the last Randoli, in the early hours, the casket is carried in procession to the Asgiriya Gedige Raja Maha Viharaya, and the processions of the four Devales go down to the Mahaweli River at Gatambe for the Diya Kapeema, the water-cutting ceremony; in 2026 thousands of devotees waited on the riverbanks. The festival closes that afternoon with the Dahawal Perahera, the Day Procession, the one chance to see it in daylight. At its end, the festival's closing message, the Perahera Sandeshaya, is handed to the President.

Which nights to choose, and where to watch

If you have only one evening, make it one of the last Randoli nights; the Maha Randoli is the fullest procession, and the busiest. Two or three nights in Kandy let you see a Randoli night and stay for the Day Perahera the next afternoon. The Kumbal nights are simpler, and they suit travellers whose dates do not stretch to the end of the festival. Our Kandy guide covers the town, and the where-to-stay guide the rooms; book them as soon as the dates are out.

The processions move through the streets of the old town around the Temple of the Tooth. The official seats are in the Queen's Hotel corridor, on the route in the town centre (see the seats section below). The route map appears on the Perahera Route page of the temple's festival website once the year's programme is out. Pick a place close to your hotel, because you will walk to it and back in the crowd.

You can also watch from home or from your hotel room: the temple streams the processions on the LIVE Stream page of sridaladamaligawa.lk, and the festival website carries the same stream. It is the way to see a night you cannot be in Kandy for.

Seats: the official ones and the resale market

The temple's own tickets, issued by machines inside the Sri Dalada Maligawa, are for visiting the temple, not for the procession. In August 2024 the Diyawadana Nilame said that seats along the route were being sold at exorbitant rates, and the Sunday Times reported that some visitors were led to think the temple was selling them (11 August 2024).

The official seats belong to the Kandy Municipal Council. In July 2025, the Mayor of Kandy said that only a limited number of viewing seats were sold officially, through the council, in the Queen's Hotel corridor, at Rs. 12,000, Rs. 15,000 and Rs. 18,000, and that they were sold online (Daily Mirror, 16 July 2025). He also said that some buyers took more than 100 tickets each online and resold them, and that resold seats were offered for Rs. 50,000 to 65,000; for the final Randoli he feared prices of Rs. 100,000 a seat.

In 2025 the Kandy Municipal Council sold its seats online, and its sale for 2027 has not opened yet; buy only through the council's own sale when it does, and skip resale websites and street touts, however official they look. If no official seat is left, a hotel stay within walking distance of the route and an early place along it, or the live stream, is a better use of the money than a resold seat.

Visiting the Temple of the Tooth during the festival

Seeing the procession and visiting the temple are two different things. The temple charges foreign visitors LKR 3,000, or LKR 2,500 for visitors from SAARC countries, Thailand and Myanmar. The ticket covers the Temple of the Tooth Relic, the Dalada Museum, the World Buddhist Museum, the Tusker Museum and the Royal Elephant Stable, and only the machines at the temple issue valid tickets; tickets or fees issued by other individuals or institutions are not valid.

Everyone entering is screened, and offerings are scanned. Shorts, sleeveless and body-revealing clothes are not admitted, though suitable clothing can be obtained at the entrances, and footwear, bulky luggage and non-essential items go to the reception booths for a token. The UK Foreign Office adds the rule for any Buddhist temple: cover your legs and shoulders, take off shoes and hats, and do not pose for photographs standing in front of a statue of the Buddha.

What closes, and how the town changes

On Poya days, Sri Lanka Tourism says, the sale of alcohol, meat and fish is prohibited and some shops and businesses close. In 2027 that applies on Esala Poya, Sunday 18 July, and Nikini Poya, Monday 16 August. If a procession night falls on a Poya day, plan dinner without a drink.

Kandy itself rearranges its evenings around the processions. The Kandy Lake Club's cultural show, normally from 5.00 PM to 6.00 PM every day, moves to 4.30 PM during the Esala Perahera period, according to its website, so it fits before a procession.

Getting to Kandy: trains to Peradeniya, buses and the road

Trains from Colombo Fort stop short of Kandy for now. Since 2 October 2026 they run only as far as Peradeniya and Gampola (Daily Mirror, 28 September 2026): the Intercity 1029 leaves Colombo Fort at 3.35 PM and reaches Peradeniya at 5.56 PM, train 1005 leaves at 5.55 AM and reaches Peradeniya at 8.34 AM, and the 1030 returns from Peradeniya at 6.25 AM to Colombo Fort at 8.44 AM. Peradeniya, where the botanic gardens lie less than 5.5 km from Kandy, is a short tuk-tuk or car ride from town. The line into Kandy waits for the repair of the bridge over the Mahaweli beyond Sarasavi Uyana station, with trains to Kandy hoped for by February 2027 (Sunday Times, 4 October 2026). When they run again, the reserved-seat trains that end at Kandy take 2 hours 31 minutes to 3 hours 20 minutes from Colombo Fort. Our transport guide has the current state of the line and the booking steps.

Reserved seats are sold only on the railway's own seat-reservation site, from 30 days before the date of travel. You need every passenger's passport number, the seats are allocated for you, and online bookings carry a 5% convenience fee. For a festival trip, book on the day sales open for your date. The booking site shows the fare for your train.

Buses go all the way into Kandy. Long-distance buses leave Colombo from the Pettah Central Bus Depot, run by the Sri Lanka Transport Board and by private companies, whose bus station is close by. When we checked on 28 October 2026, the National Transport Commission's fare list in force from 6 July 2026 gave route 1, Colombo to Kandy, at LKR 521 on a normal bus and LKR 1,018 on an air-conditioned luxury bus, and its expressway list gave Colombo to Kandy at LKR 1,230. By road, the Colombo to Kandy road (A1) is 115.85 km, and Sri Lanka Tourism gives about 3 hours by road from Colombo. Before you fly, read our entry guide for the ETA.

Crowds and safety advice

The Perahera draws a very large crowd, and three European governments give advice that covers it. The UK Foreign Office names large public gatherings, including religious occasions, among possible terrorist targets and advises avoiding crowded public places. The German Foreign Office advises avoiding larger gatherings and taking particular care at religious sites. France Diplomatie advises avoiding religious gatherings. Other governments may advise differently; read your own government's advice.

None of them names the Perahera, but they are a reason to choose how you watch: an official seat or the live stream keeps you out of the densest standing crowd, and if you stand, arrive early, keep to the edge and agree a meeting point.