Thua Thien-Hue to host National Tourism Year 2012

The National Tourism Year 2012 themed “Hue-Ancient capital city-New experiences” will be held in central Thua Thien-Hue Province. The event is expected to promote Vietnam’s tourism products and cultural heritages, attract more foreign tourists and boost domestic tourism.  Hue Festival – a quintessential biennial event of Vietnamese cultural heritages – will be the major cultural draw card. Lying on the north-south railway and main road connected to Laos and northeastern Thailand and with the Phu Bai International Airport and the Chan May Seaport, Thua Thien-Hue Province will be a stopover for central and nationwide tourists.

Hue readies for 2012 festival

The central city of Hue is gearing up for its biennial festival, which promises a diverse programme of performances and activities across a week of celebrations. Held from April 7-15 this year, the festival will be the city's biggest cultural event, said vice chairman of Thua Thien-Hue Province People's Committee and head of the festival organising committee Ngo Hoa. "This year will mark the 7th festival that the province has held every two years since 2000," said Hoa. "It has become known as one of the biggest cultural events not only for Hue , but for the whole country. "The festival is also an opportunity to promote tourism in the province and let the world know more about the city of Hue . It's also an event to honour historical and cultural monuments of the former Royal Capital city as well its intangible heritage." A main stage will be built in the Royal Citadel, which will host the opening ceremony that features a music and dance art performance titled Royal Citadel Night. A series of stages will be installed outside the Royal Citadel soon for community arts performances. According to the organising committee, a music and dance performance named Oriental Night, which was introduced in 2010, will be staged again at the Thai Hoa Palace . The ao dai (Vietnamese traditional long dress) show will again be a major event at the festival. New shows were created to keep the festival fresh." The city will also host the Nam Giao religious ritual, which was held during the Nguyen dynasty (1802-1945), on April 8 as part of the Hue Festival. Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street along the Huong (Perfume) River bank will be reserved as a pedestrian street featuring a range of cuisine. The city's hotels, with a capacity of 10,000 rooms, are bracing for a large number of tourist arrivals. Thua Thien-Hue Province plans to host around 2.5 million foreign and domestic tourists this year, generating a total revenue of 2,500 billion VND (over 113 million USD) for the provincial tourism sector. According to the festival organising committee, 36 art troupes from 22 countries have registered to take part in the festival.

Hue Festival attracts artists from 30 countries

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.

French art troupes attend Hue Festival

French art troupes led by President of the Poitou-Charentes Regional Council of France, Segolene Royal will attend the opening ceremony of the Hue Festival on the evening of April 7.

This is the second time Royal has visited Vietnam in the past six months. Pointou-Charantes has sent several art troupes to the Hue Festival since the event was first held in 2000.

A number of art troupes from the Poitou-Charentes region will join this year’s festival including Carabosse, Jazz Combo Box and Les Oreillers Rouges-Vanessa Jousseaume.

Carabosse troupe has planned a spectacular performance on the Huong River with candle installations during the opening ceremony.

The French artists will also set up an installation of small fires along the wall of the Hien Nhon Gate in the Forbidden Purple City and the trumpeters of Jazz Combo Box will perform in the streets and on stage at the festival.

During her visit from April 7-10, Segolene Royal will visit and hold working sessions with Vietnamese leaders. This is also an opportunity for the French delegation to observe the progress of the eco-tourism development project undertaken by the Hue Tourism College and La Rochelle University. 

Traditional Hue ritual, trade fair draw festival visitors

The sacred Nam Giao Offering Ritual took place on April 8 at the Nam Giao Esplanade, as part of the on-going Hue festival.

The Nam Giao Offering Ritual was one of the most important traditional ceremonies under the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945), which honoured the sky and the earth. It focused around the desire for peace, prosperity and favourable weather.

This year’s ceremony began at 8pm, with a procession of 34 wooden tablets carried from Trai Cung, the Palace of Fasting Palace, to the Nam Giao Esplanade, with over 1,000 people dressed in traditional royal costumes taking part.

The Nam Giao Esplanade, a three story monument, was built in Duong Xuan village, south of the Hue citadel, in 1806. The top floor was circular to symbolise the sky but the two floors below were square to symbolise the earth and man. The Nguyen Dynasty usually held this ritual in mid-February with the King or the head mandarin acting as the officiating priest.

As part of the 2012 Hue festival, a six-day international trade fair opened the same day with 350 companies from across the country and several from Laos, China, Thailand, the Philippines and Taiwan exhibiting their goods and services.

Also on the day, the National Centre of Traditional Performance Art from the Republic of Korea (RoK) presented a set of Vietnamese Court music instruments to the Hue Centre for the Preservation of Relics.

The instruments, including a magnificent bronze bell and a large musical stone, were restored with financial assistance from the RoK.

Since 2010, both countries have worked together to collect and study various old documents and have supported training for local people to give them the skills to restore Vietnamese Court musical instruments.

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.

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.

2012 Hue festival wrapped up

The 2012 Hue Festival concluded on April 15 with impressive cultural performances by artists from Vietnam and countries from five continents around the world.

The large scale festival with the theme of "Cultural Heritage with Integration and Development: A Rendezvous of Historical Cities" featured a wide range of events such as art performances, culinary fairs and exhibitions.

An Australian visitor named Herman praised the beauty of Hue at night, adding that the local residents were very friendly and hospitable. He said he was very impressed with the art performances at the festival, especially the Lao Cai art troupe.

Palestinian Ambassador to Vietnam Saadi Salama highlighted the festival's organization, saying he was pleased that Hue invited art troupes from many nations to perform and introduce their cultures to the Vietnamese people and visitors.

However, some researchers said that the preservation of the unique mausoleums, temples, pagodas and traditional Hue songs should receive more attention in future festivals. 

First traditional musical instrument festival opens

Around 380 artists from 19 professional art troupes nationwide are taking part in the 1st traditional musical instrument festival in the central province of Thua-Thien Hue from June 5-10.

They perform different kinds of traditional arts, including tuong (classical opera), cheo, (traditional opera), cai luong (reformed theater), mua roi (puppet theater) and nha nhac cung dinh Hue (Hue royal court music).

Head of the festival’s steering board Vuong Duy Bien said the event provides a good opportunity for artists to show their skills and introduce Vietnam’s unique culture to international friends.

It also aims to preserve and develop these values, he added.

The festival is jointly held by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Vietnam Musicians’ Association and Thua Thien-Hue province as part of the 2012 National Tourism Year of Northcentral Coastal Region in Hue.