The Song Fair has a long history, extending from the Qing Dynasty, and is a popular traditional cultural of the Zhuang Ethnic Group. It also acts as a major social interaction the Zhuang youth. The fair held in March (lunar calendar, similarly hereinafter) is the most important one, drawing the most participants. The fair held in September ranks second, and there are also some other fairs in Jan., July or October. In order to carry on and promote the traditional culture of the nation, the local governments keep holding the “March the Third” Singing Fairs in each county every year. On that day, thousands of people can be found singing all over the banks of Lingshui Lake, along the Wuming River, in Mingxiu Park and beside many highways and on many hillsides. At many locations, you can hear a variety of different kinds of folk songs merging into a vast musical sea. Nowadays, the folk song singers and experts of from the US, Japan, Thailand, Britain and France travel great distances to take part in the Fairs every year.

Similar to the western football, the “Stilt ball” of the Zhuang is played using the stilts to kick the ball, to run here and there on the field or to get the ball. The ball used in matches nowadays is a football (known as a “soccer ball” in America), but in the past, a shaddock was used to play in the match!

During every year's folk song fair on March 3rd, the most exciting activity is the game of Rush-snatching the Firecrackers. The competition is carried out by teams formed by vigorous men from each village. The so-called “firecracker” is actually an iron ring 5cm in diameter and wrapped with a red cloth. The firecracker is placed into small cannon charged with gunpowder in advance. After ignition, the firecracker is sent into the air with a loud “Bang!”. The teams from different villages then rush to snatch the falling firecracker before any member of an opposing team can do so. The player who gets the firecracker will—with the help of his teammates—try to break through the other team's line. They, on the other hand, will do everything they can to snatch the firecracker away from him and take it in the opposite direction.  The team, who can throw the firecracker into the other side's flower basket, wins the match. The snatches of the game are very intense and the play of the game is very rough, just like the Western game of rugby. Therefore, it is not surprising that this game is also informally called “Oriental rugby”.

March, the third of the lunar calendar is a traditional festival of the Zhuang Ethnic Group. On this day the Zhuang people happily hold a big singing fair, pay their respects to their forefathers and entertain the relatives and friends with five-color sticky rice and red eggs.

Early in the morning of that day, with joy and expectation, hundreds of people, wearing splendid attire and carrying their red eggs and five-color sticky rice come from counties and towns from near and far to attend the folk song fair. In groups of 3-5 males or females from different villages, the young people antiphonally sing the folk songs throughout the whole night until dawn. During this time, those boys and girls who have found their ideal dating partners through the antiphonal singing will slip away together in pairs for private whispers and mutual expressions of adoration and love. During the folk song fair, there are some other interesting entertainments, such as young ladies tossing a special embroidered ball to their admirers, the game of capturing the firecracker (see No.11) and the performance of the a lion and dragon.

There are also other feats for plunging into a sea of flame, such as stepping barefoot on scalding iron plowshares, walking barefoot over burning charcoal (sea of flame) and “walking the foot lamp”; that is, the players step on each of a series of lined-up bamboo lamps without extinguishing the lights. What amazing feats!