Pesta Nukenen Bario was founded in 2005 as a community-owned food and  cultural festival organised for the first time in 2006.

The festival celebrates the unique food, farming, forest and cultural heritage of the Highlands - one of the last surviving intact traditionally farmed and forested highland watersheds in Sarawak and East Malaysia.

It celebrates the food, farming and forest heritage of rural areas by promoting low impact community based cultural tourism and medium-long distance eco-trekking in the beautiful Heart of Borneo.