Hue festival honours “ao dai” in fashion show

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.

Ben Tre coconut festival great success

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.

Oriental cultures spotlighted at Hue festival

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.

Festival honours ethnic cultures

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.

Vietnamese Ethnic Group Cultural Festival - a bridge among ethnic groups

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).

6th Gong Culture Festival to kick off in Lam Dong Province

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.

DIPR 2012 to be held in Danang

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.

Red Flamboyant Festival – The preparation for National Tourism Year of the Red River Delta region - Hai Phong 2013

To successfully organize events in the National Tourism Year 2013, People's Committee of Hai Phong City developed plans for the first Red Flamboyant Festival - Hai Phong 2012.

The festival aims to create a new tourism culture product held annually based on flamboyant image as a symbol and a second name of Hai Phong City. The festival will also contribute to highlight the theme of the National Tourism Year of the Red River Delta region 2013. Besides, through the festival, Hai Phong expects to promote image and attract tourists to the city and also open opportunities to develop tourism products, link domestic and international tourism market.

As scheduled, the first Red Flamboyant Festival - Hai Phong 2012 with the theme "Sparkling the red of Hai Phong" will be held from 9-10 June, including culture, arts, sports, parades activities ... The highlight of the festival will be "Red Flamboyant Night" is scheduled to take place at 20:00 at Hai Phong Opera House Square. In addition, the festival also has other diversified activities such as: “Miss Hai Phong” contest; Hai Phong Trade – Tourism Day; performance of installation art, bike parade on “Hai Phong Red Flamboyant Street”; pilot opening pedestrian streets, tourism night market…

An innovative idea introduced to engage local people and visitors in the festival is the organizer encourages audiences to wear red costumes and vote “The most impressive red costume”.

To ensure the success of the festival, the city is urgently boosting activities as: renovating and upgrading urban areas; keeping environment clean, traffic safety… Also, the city promotes activities of the festival and images of Hai Phong’s tourism on mass media…

The organization of the festival will be a preparation for the National Tourism Year 2013 in the city of flamboyant and make a difference to attract the interest of people, domestic and foreign tourists.