The eighth
event of its kind, the biennial festival will serve as a venue for
ancient capital cities and typical cultural areas in Vietnam and the
world.
Themed “Cultural Heritage with Integration and
Development”, the festival is part of the East Asian-Latin American
cultural exchange forum held by Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According
to Vice Chairman of the Thua Thien-Hue provincial People’s Committee
Ngo Hoa, head of the event’s management board, the festival will
contribute to promoting the locality’s socio-economic development.
For
the first time, 15-minute firework performances will take place at the
opening and closing ceremonies of the festival, he said.
Famous French photographer Sebastienne Laval will exhibit his photos of
ethnic minority groups of Vietnam at Truong Tien Bridge during the
festival.
The festival will include an Ao dai show
and exhibitions featuring Hue kite flying, calligraphy, food demos and
street performances, among others.
Vietnam will, for the first time, welcome world famous guests such as
Brazil’s Sururu Na Roda band, Japan’s Bati-Holic drum troupe, and the
Palestinian folk dance collective Asayel to the event.
Nha Nhac – the royal court music and dance of Hue which has been named
by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity - will be
highlighted at the festival. A similar variant of this elegant music is
popular in Japan, where it is known as “Gegaku”, is also expected to
charm audiences.
Trade fairs, conferences and
tourism promotion activities will also be held in the framework of the
event. Among those will be the ASEAN+3 Ministerial Meeting on Culture
and Fine Arts from April 16-21.
Hoa added France’s
Poitou – Charentes region, which has assisted the locality in organising
the Hue Festival since 2000, is still a major partner of this year’s
event.
Apart from the event, the region has also supported the
central province in improving the quality of human resources in the
tourism field, promoting cultural heritage preservation and
international cooperation, and developing eco-tourism.
The 2014 Hue Festival is expected to attract 200,000 visitors, half of them will be foreigners.
Preparations
for the festival have been basically completed. The provincial Hotel
Association has undertaken to supply 526 accommodation facilities with
more than 10,000 rooms to serve tourists during the event. Eleven hotels
in the city have also registered to provide 1,000 free rooms worth one
billion VND for the festival.
Source: VNA