This
years biennial Hue Festival, held in the former imperial city of Hue ,
will feature 40 different groups of performers from nearly 30 countries
from all five continents and run from April 7-15.
From
France, the street performing act Carabosse will bring a unique fire
lighting act to the festival. While the Combo Box and Ego will also play
their brand of jazz along various streets.
The Nantes based
trio Smooth, is a jazz-funk/ electronic outfit, who first got together
in 2005. Their music is a mix of influences from different times and
places that could easily have been played in a 1960s underground venue
in London or a Berlin café in the 70s.
Many have put together
special acts to perform at the festival, including “ Russia, My Love” by
the Raduga dance troupe from Khabarovsk in Russia.
Added to
this, Deep Roots, a Cuban folk group, will bring a colourful and
exciting dancing and singing performance to the festival.
The
band Cuartoelemento from Argentina, singer Manou Gallo and composer Max
Vandervorst from Belgium are also set to entertain the public with their
unique performances.
All the acts will give their first
performance for patients in hospitals in Hue and for workers and
soldiers throughout the city.
The
Danang International Paramotor Race (DIPR) 2012 named "Danang - New
peaks" will be first organized in Vietnam from May 23-27 with the
participation of 25 athletes coming from America, France and Japan.
The
race will include four contents: speed, avoiding obstacles, rescuing,
and performing in a team; and promises to be an exciting performance for
audience.
Speaking at a press conference, Vice Chairman of the
Danang municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Xuan Anh, head of the
competition board, said that the competition will introduce paramotor
performance to tourists and people in the city and help Danang live up
to its slogan "the city of events". “The competition sets the ground for
the development of paramotor events, as well as bringing a new activity
to aviation sports in Vietnam.”
During the DIPR 2012, tourists
can fly with the athletes at a cost of about 1.3 million VND. Apart from
that, tourist can also participate in related activities such as
cuisine garden, beer garden, stalls for traditional products and beach
sports.
The race will present three prizes, the first prize is worth 10,000 USD.
The Gong Culture Festival 2012 will take place on April 21st at Don Duong District, Lam Dong Province.
The festival will draw the participation of 12 delegations with over 300 veteran gong artists from ethnic groups in the region.
Mr.
Nguyen Vu Hoang, director of Lam Dong province cultural centre, the
vice organizer of the event, said, “The 12 artisan delegations this year
fully represent the two major ethnic groups who speak Mon-Khmer and Ma
languages in Lam Dong.”
Gong cultures include two main types of
the instruments, cong and chieng. Cong gongs have a knob in the middle
and deliver a deep bass sound, while the chieng gong is more melodious.
The
6th Gong Culture Festival consists of three main types of gong
cultures: Ma, K’ho and Churu. The festival is aimed at promoting the
UNESCO recognised Central Highlands gong culture of the area’s ethnic
minority people.
This is also the first time the Lam Dong
Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism will award the title “artisan”
for gong players in Lam Dong province. At the same time, the chieng
competition will be held between teams and, if it is successful, it will
be maintained and developed in coming festivals.
A
preliminary conference to review three years of implementing the Prime
Minister’s Decision on ‘Vietnam Ethnic Group Cultural Day’ (April 19)
has been held during the festival, along with a conference on promoting
tourism, a mountain market fair and traditional games, sports and
entertainment.
This
is an opportunity for ethnic minority people to review obtained results
and shortcomings which need to be overcome to fully implement policy,
especially policies for ethnic minority groups, and people in
mountainous and remote areas, border areas and islands.
Activities
during the event are designed by and for ethnic minority people and
attract many people of all walks, so that ethnic minorities can directly
enjoy these activities.
The festival aims to help preserve
ethnic culture and popularise products and services among tourists,
honour the cultures of Vietnamese ethnic groups and boost cultural
exchange and national unity among ethnic minorities in Vietnam.
The
highlight of the event will be a gala night featuring 13 ethnic groups
from eight provinces in Vietnam, aiming to promote mutual understanding
and solidarity.
This year’s festival also celebrates the 65th
anniversary of the day President Ho Chi Minh sent a letter to the
Congress of Southern Ethnic Minority Groups in Pleiku
(19/4/1947-19/4/2012).
Some of the country's diverse ethnic cultures will be on show at a festival held on April 18-19 in suburban Hanoi.
The
Vietnam Ethnic Groups Cultural Festival features the participation of
13 ethnic groups from eight cities and provinces. Taking place at the
Vietnamese Ethnic Groups Culture and Tourism Village in Dong Mo tourist
area, 40km from the city centre, the festival's highlights include a
gala night with the theme of "Opportunities in the Year of the Dragon",
featuring art performances by more than 300 artists.
The
artistic director of the show, Nguyen Khac Phuc, said the performance
will spotlight the cultural quintessence of ethnic groups throughout the
country.
"The stage will be arranged with symbols representing the diversified culture and solidarity of 54 groups in Vietnam," he said.
The gala night will be broadcast live by Radio the Voice of Vietnam (VOV) and Vietnam Television (VTV) on April 19.
A
preliminary conference to review the three years of implementing the
Prime Minister's Decision on "Vietnam Ethnic Group Cultural Day" (April
19) will be held during the festival along with a conference on
promoting tourism, a market fair with produce from mountainous regions,
traditional craft village exhibition and traditional games, sports and
entertainment.
The festival aims to help preserve ethnic culture
and popularise products and services to tourists, honour the cultures
of Vietnamese ethnic groups and boost cultural exchanges and national
unity among ethnic minorities in Vietnam.
The
ancient royal palaces in Hue seemed to travel back in time on the
evening of April 10, with flags, sparkling candles, lanterns and the
aroma of incense in the air, giving visitors to Hue festival a taste of
life as a Royal during the Nguyen Dynasty, from 1802-1945.
The
“Dem Hoang Cung” (Royal Night) event, one of the highlights at Hue
festival, will be staged on the night of April 10 and 13, with a range
of artistic performances of Court music and dance, traditional songs
from Hue as well as its cuisine, including royal dishes.
Visitors take part in some of the scenes, such as the princess’s procession and the changing of the guard ceremony.
The
Royal Night also honoured the unique cultural values of other countries
in the region with a fashion show featuring traditional costumes from
Japan, the Republic of Korea, India, Mongolia, Thailand, the
Philippines, Laos, Cambodia as well as Vietnam.
Earlier that
day, the first international drum and percussion instrument festival
gathered together hundreds of Bronze and Royal drummers, the Tay Son war
drum group and musicians playing Tay Nguyen gongs.
The sound of
the bronze drum symbolises the nation’s vitality. It calls the people
to gather on festival days or warns of natural disasters and invaders,
historian Duong Trung Quoc said, adding that keeping the sound of the
bronze drum maintains our national culture.
Also as a part of
the Hue festival, an exhibition of photos is being held at the Royal
Palace, with 29 photos of Hue by Vietnamese photographer Dao Hoa Nu and
60 others focusing on Vietnam, its countryside and its people, by
Japanese photographer Teruyo Iwahiro.
During its first three days from April 7-9, Hue festival attracted 65,000 tourists, including 30,000 from overseas.
The
third Coconut Festival came to an end in the Mekong Delta province of
Ben Tre On April 10, with hundreds of thousands of domestic and foreign
visitors and local people taking part.
This
year’s festival included an art installation of a coconut road, a
coconut foods festival, a tour of a coconut plantation and a coconut
carnival to celebrate the future of coconuts. A seminar on how to
increase the value of coconut products was also held along with a beauty
contest, for the title ‘ Miss Coconut Land ’.
During the event,
Ben Tre People’s Committee met with several domestic and foreign
organisations and businesses to promote Ben Tre coconut brand and
attract more investment to the area.
During the festival, six
investment projects with a total capital of 86 billion VND and 45.6
million USD were granted licences by Ben Tre provincial People’s
Committee.
In addition, the province also signed memorandums of
understanding (MoUs) on investment cooperation for five projects, with
capital of over 2,500 billion VND.
The event honoured local
farmers as well as scientists, researchers and businesses, who have
helped to develop the Ben Tre coconut trade mark, not only in Vietnam
but also overseas.
The provinces coconut products have been
exported to 50 countries and territories across the world, accounting
for 25 percent of the total industrial production value in Ben Tre
province and 40 percent of its export turnover.
The festival also helped to encourage trade promotion, investment, tourism and marketing in the area and Vietnam in general.
At
the closing ceremony, the organisers announced three national records
for products made from the coconut tree, which were recognised by
Vietnam ’s Record Book.
They also presented certificates of
merit and mementos to 14 businesses that produce arts and handicraft
products who had won a competition during the festival to create
products from the coconut tree.
The
elegant beauty of “ao dai”, Vietnam ’s traditional long dress, will be
honoured with a special performance taking place as part of the 2012 Hue
Festival.
With
the theme “Lotus in the fine arts”, the show will be a combination of
the lotus, which is on way to becoming the national flower, and the “ao
dai”, underlining their aesthetic value in the souls of Vietnamese
people.
With nearly 20 designers from the length and breadth of
the country and 150 models, the 90-minute show is expected to attract a
large audience.
Explaining why lotus was chosen as the major
theme for the show, Minh Hanh, a leading designer, said that the lotus
is very familiar to Vietnamese people, especially those who live in Hue .
It is not easy to represent the beauty of the lotus in a long
dress as the flower embraces all the spiritual hallmarks and purity of
the Vietnamese people. However, using their own creativeness the
designers have created numerous romantic images of the lotus on “ao
dai”, said the designer.
According to Hanh, the traditional and
mysterious beauty of the “ao dai” is very easily understood. The
national traditional long dress had previously been showcased at seven
Hue festivals.
Vietnamese designers are also making an effort to
promote the image of the “ao dai” overseas as many foreigners have
shown an interest in the dress.
Vietnam ’s traditional long
dress is beautiful in the eyes of foreigners because of its gracefulness
and contours, said the French based General Director of the Big C
Group.
The “ao dai” show will take place on the bank of the
Huong (Perfume) river, where a huge conical hat made of leaves is also
on display. Both are expected to become high points of the Hue Festival.
