HCMC wedding party sets Vietnamese record
 
A group wedding for 80 couples was held at 11:11 a.m. on November 11, 2011. The event, which was organized by the HCMC Youth Worker Support Center, was acknowledged as the biggest ever wedding in the nation’s history by the Vietnam Record Book Center.

The wedding process included a flower vehicles parade on the street, flower and incense offerings at the statue of Uncle Ho in front of the HCMC People’s Committee and a huge wedding party at the White Palace Convention Center in Phu Nhuan District. The couples received free wedding rings, cakes, banquet, make-up, wedding outfits, photo shoots and an ATM card worth VND2 million from organizers.
 
Hon Viet - an insight into local culture and history

Hon Viet (The Soul of Vietnam), featuring a mix of musical and dance styles from the northern, southern, and central regions, will finally come to the HCMC Opera House tomorrow.

The program includes five items of Hai Ba Trung’s legend, the cowboy and banyan tree, ethnic music of three regions of Vietnam, bamboo dance of Tay Bac region and rhythm modern dancing.

The show is arranged to give tourists a real insight into Vietnamese history. The audience will be given a leaflet with information on the show in English and before each show artist Linh Huyen will introduce the item in English with a brief description of the meaning and content.

The program will become a monthly feature in the city on the 15th and 24th. Tickets are available at the Opera House, 7 Lam Son Square in District 1, priced at VND100,000, VND180,000 and VND300,000.
 
UK band Zun Zun Egui to rock Vietnam  

Famous UK rock band Zun Zun Egui will perform in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in late November during the upcoming EU Music Festival 2011.

This young rock band formed in Bristol's side streets in South West England.

Zun Zun Egui got its start playing up and down the United Kingdom to “hardcore party crowds” and then was invited to play shows all over the world. Zun Zun Egui has just released their debut album "Katang."

“On stage and at their best, Zun Zun Egui combines the fury and speedy neurosis of a metal band with a sense of contagious fun. Although they’re after working the audience into a state of something approaching [a] trance, their method and madness are light rather than dark, elevating the spirits rather than plunging them into iron-clad doom," according to The Arts Desk.

The band will perform at the HCMC Conservatory of Music at 8 p.m. on November 25 and at the Hanoi Youth Theatre on November 26.
 
Dengue Fever to return to Hanoi  

The Cambodian-American psych-rock powerhouse Dengue Fever will return to Southeast Asia for their 2011 Electric Mekong tour - with shows in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia - to promote their new album.

The show in Hanoi on November 26 is the band’s second visit to the capital, following its performance at the 2010 CAMA Festival.

According to a press release, the band showcases the best of America’s cultural fusion with Cambodian vocalist Chhom Nimol (who has sung regularly for the King and Queen of Cambodia), and L.A. rockers Ethan Holtzman (keyboards), Zac Holtzman (guitar), David Ralicke (horns), Senon Williams (bass) and Paul Smith (drums).

The band has been wowing audiences around the world in 2011, with appearances at Glastonbury, Roskilde, WOMAD and beyond.

With five albums, including the latest one Cannibal Courtship, and hundreds of live shows, as well as a slew of feature tracks on film and TV (from films like City of Ghosts and Jim Jarmuch’s Broken Flowers, to cult series like True Blood and Weeds), Dengue Fever is a band at the top of its game.

The event will take place at the American Club, 19–21 Hai Ba Trung, Hanoi.

Tickets, priced at VND100,000, are available at American Club’s door.

Vietnam to open first photo museum in region  
 
Vietnam's National Photo Museum is located within the building of the National Artistic Photo Exhibition and Archive Center in Hanoi.

The first photo museum in Southeast Asia will soon open in Hanoi, the Department of Cultural Heritage under the Ministry Culture, Sports and Tourism announced in the capital on November 8.

Accordingly, the construction of the national museum has just been completed with the help of the Wallonie-Bruxelles delegation and the Charleroi Photo Museum in Belgium.

The museum will open in early 2012.

It is located within the eight-story building of the National Artistic Photo Exhibition and Archive Center, which covers an area of 1,200 square meters in Trung Hoa, Cau Giay District, 10 kilometers away from downtown.

The site is used as a national photography archiving center, as well as to organize photography events and photography classes.

In the future, with the museum, the building will serve as a photo bank, archiving and displaying rare, precious, historical photos.

According to Pascale Delcomminette, head of the Wallonie-Bruxelles delegation, it is necessary to collect and promote photos as image heritage to local students because it is an effective tool in education.

In addition, the museum should serve as a cultural center for local and international artists and photographers for career exchanges, she said.

Korean K-pop quartet to perform in Vietnam

2N1E, a girl band of the Republic of Korea, will perform in Hanoi on Nov. 19.

At the show titled “Idols’ night - Going together Concert in Vietnam with 2NE1”, the girls will perform their hits, including “Fire”, “I don't care”, “Can't nobody”, “In the club”, “Go away”, “Hate you” and “Ugly”.

Vietnamese singers Phuong Vy and Thanh Duy will also perform at the concert, which will be live broadcasted on the Vietnam Television’s channel 3 (VTV3).

The concert, jointly held by the Silkroad C&T JSC, the Korean Cultural Centre in Vietnam , the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, aims to exchange pop culture between the RoK and Vietnam as well as create chances for Vietnamese fans to meet their idols.

Lingerie model to launch musical career
 
Vietnam’s top model Vu Nguyen Ha Anh will hold a mini live show on November 30 at Park Hyatt Saigon Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City to launch her musical projectsVietnam’s top model Vu Nguyen Ha Anh will hold a mini live show on November 30 at Park Hyatt Saigon Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City to conclude her 8-year international modeling career and launch her musical one.

The Hanoi model has already sparked excitement among musical fans when a demo version of her debut single “Model (Take My Picture)” was released recently on the internet.

Within 24 hours after it appeared the single had more than 13,000 visits and comments and 26,000 search results although its full version will not be released until the end of this month.

Ha Anh announced her plan to expand her career to music 2 years ago when she first came back to Vietnam from the UK, where she got her Bachelor’s Degree in Business at the University of Reading and later worked as a professional model for 9 years.

However it is not until this year that Ha Anh was involved in a series of musical activities, such as joining the Vietnam version of the British reality music show “Just the two of us” where she was highly praised for her performances with singer Ho Trung Dung.

Ha Anh’s debut single was written by songwriter Antoneus Maximus, who authored the original soundtracks of recent Vietnamese blockbuster movies such as Long Ruoi and De Mai Tinh.

He is also known for his collaborations with world-renowned band Black Eyed Peas.

The official music video and DVD version of “Model (Take My Picture)” will be released and distributed nationwide on November 28 with the sponsorship of fashion magazine Haper's Bazaar Vietnam.

Besides being known for sexy lingerie and underwear photo shoots in Vietnam, Ha Anh is also known as an MC as well as the host and judge for the first Vietnam’s Next Top Model in 2010.

She was also appointed as the Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF Vietnam the same year.

Ha Anh is not the first model to pursue a professional singing career, but only Ho Ngoc Ha, also a former top model, has been able to make a successful career switch so far.

200,000 tulip baskets to be displayed at Da Lat festival

Around 200,000 baskets of tulip flower will be displayed on the shores of Xuan Huong Lake during the Da Lat Flower Festival 2012.

According to Nguyen Vu Hoang, Chief Director of the Da Lat Flower Festival 2012, the tulip flower baskets will be on show from December 30, 2011 until the Lunar New Year festival, which will fall on January 23, 2012.

The Da Lat Flower Festival 2012 will take pace in the central Highlands province of Lam Dong from December 30, 2011 to January 3, 2012 with 27 programmes.

Japanese trio to perform folk, Beatles in Hanoi

Japanese traditional music trio Trinity will perform Japanese folk, other Asian music, and some Beatles classics in Hanoi this week at a concert organized by the Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange in Vietnam.

The band consists of Chikudo Takahashi playing tsugaru shamisen, a Japanese three-string lute, Kei Wada playing percussion, and Miki Maruta playing koto, a Japanese harp.

After forming in 2006, they released their debut album "Trinity" in May 2009.

Takahashi was the last apprentice of renowned artist Chikuzan Takahashi who established and spread a solo tsugaru shamisen playing style.

Wada has worked with artists in various musical genres, while also helping direct and produce accompaniments.

Koto player Maruta plays a wide range of different music, from classical to contemporary.

The concert is scheduled for 8pm on November 19 and 20 at Hong Ha Theatre, 51 Duong Thanh Street, Hoan Kiem District.

Tickets are available at the center, 27 Quang Trung Street.

Classic French play tipped to enthrall Vietnamese audience

The Vietnam Play Theatre will be staging the French classic Andromaque, directed by Jean Mari Lejude, in Hanoi on December 14-15, before touring France and a number of other European countries.

Andromaque is a tragedy in five acts created by French playwright Jean Racine and written in Alexandrine verse (a style of writing that was adopted in the 16th century and which uses lines of 12 syllables).

It was translated into Vietnamese in the 1970s by Duong Tuong.

The play was first performed on November 17, 1667 for Louis XIV at the Louvre in the private chambers of Queen Marie Therese, by the royal company of actors that were known as “les Grands Comediens”.

The first public performance took place two days later at the Hotel de Bourgogne in Paris.

Open workshop with a difference at ZeroStation

Visual, sound and musical open dialogue from Frenchman Sebastien Szczyrk and Vietnamese-American Dan Nguyen will open at ZeroStation (G0), 288 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia Street in HCMC’s District 3.

This open workshop will have two parts. The first part started on Sunday and continues to Thursday. In the four-day period, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Szczyrk will use ZeroStation’s space as his studio as he plays with musical, sound and visual ideas.

The second part will be held from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday with a visual, sound and musical performance, which is presented via dialogue between Szczyrk and Nguyen. In this final performance, both artists will together build a spontaneous concert where music and visual effects will become the instrument to make multiple methods of dialogue not only between the artists but among the audience who have now become active participants.

Szczyrk graduated from the Beaux-Arts in Paris with honors in 2005. His art practice, multi-disciplinary, visual research and sound experimentation can be separated into three areas: graphical art, sound art, drawing and sound performance. He is an artist in residency in Packed Residency Program of ZeroStation.

Nguyen (artistic name DMN SLYR) began life as a DJ and composer at 16. Now he works as an accomplished music composer and seasoned stage performer. He has performed and been involved with dozens of popular and successful artists.