The most important local festivals are the annual Corban Festival and Lesser Bairam. According to the Islamic calendar Corban Festival falls on December 10th and Lesser Bairam is 70 days before of Corban Festival. Having a strong ethnic flavor, Guniang Zhui (a kind of funny way to express love between young men and women) and Diaoyang (a traditional sport of the local minority) are very interesting tourist activities at that time. If you are lucky enough, you can appreciate such amusing movements.

Corban Festival is one of the most important festivals.It is also known as 'Sacrifice Festival', which is hosted every December 10th by Islamic population. In preparation all Muslims should clean and dress up to attend the ceremony at the Great Mosque. During the three-day holidays, people go door to door to exchange greetings in their best ethnic costumes. All homes serve the visitors delicious mutton. The thumping singing and dancing parties will be held in both urban and rural areas. Some sports activities: such as horse races, wrestling and sheep snatching are most popular among the Kazaks, Ozbeks and Tajiks nationalities.

Lesser Bairam is also called 'Fast breaking Festival'. It is the New Year festival of the Hui nationality as well as other groups. Every adult Muslim fasts one month every year. During the Ramadan, the Muslims eat either before sunrise or after sunset. The last day of Ramadan is a holiday.

The annual Silk Road Snow Folk Festival (Sichou Zhilu Bingxue Fengqing Jie) is a rising tourist festival in Urumqi. The grand opening ceremony is held in December and the festival usually lasts till the following March offering tourists a different travel experience.