Festival popularises intangible cultural heritage in Lam Dong

A festival on the Viet Nam's world intangible cultural heritage is open till Saturday in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong.

This is the first time the country's seven world intangible cultural heritages have been shown together in one performance.

During the four-day festival, provincial art troupes will present the cultural rites of gong (from the Central Highlands), nha nhac (Hue royal court music), quan ho (Bac Ninh love duet singing), xoan singing, the Giong Festival and the Hung Kings worshipping custom.

Thirty-five national intangible cultural heritages that recently gained recognition such as don ca tai tu (Southern amateur music) as well as folk songs of ethnic minority groups will also be introduced at the festival.

Seminars on preserving and developing the intangible cultural heritage will be held on the sidelines.

Spectacular enters record books

The Bong Sen Theatre of Traditional Music and Dance's production Sen (Lotus) has entered the Viet Nam Guinness Record for being "the most spectacular and inspiring Vietnamese cultural performance".

Word of mouth: The Bong Sen Theatre's production of Sen (Lotus) in HCM City has made it into the Viet Nam Guinness Book of Records for being the "most spectacular and inspiring Vietnamese cultural performance". — File Photo

First staged in 2010 by the HCM City-based theatre, the show expresses traditional cultures and folklore through beautiful contemporary choreography and the enchanting sounds of traditional musical instruments.

It will make its 2013 debut on January 30 and 31, and be performed regularly nationwide.

Historian Nguyen Khac Thuan, representing the Viet Nam Guinness Record, told a press conference on Monday that the Bong Sen Theatre deserved the honour for promoting and preserving Vietnamese cultural heritage.

The honour will formally be conferred on the show's opening night.

Sen is crafted by a group of leading artists and has many cultural references.

Dang Hung, the director of the theatre, said professional dance artists and budding talents from the Bong Sen Theatre would perform alongside pillars of the performing arts such as People's Artists Do Loc and Phuong Bao, Meritorious Artists Dang Hung, Vuong Linh, Nhat Sinh, Dinh Linh, Tuyet Mai, Xuan Nhung, and Anh Tan, choreographer Tran Ly Ly, and renowned dancer Linh Nga.

"The oldest is 67-year-old Do Loc, and the youngest is seven-year-old Gia Linh," Hung said.

Vuong Linh said this year Sen would feature 15 items, including the closing item called Dang Sen (Offer Lotus Respectfully) which will be performed by all 117 artists in the show.

Sen will be staged 24 times around the country this year, with several tourist companies linking up to bring their clients to the shows in HCM City.

The first two performances will be at the HCM City Opera House.

Tri Minh talks chill-out and electronic

Vietnam’s leading electronic musician and producer Tri Minh will release his latest album “Hanoi Love Stories” in association with local and foreign artists in town tomorrow. The popular DJ will host a discussion on electronic and chill-out music to celebrate the CD release.

Some songs from this album will be performed live during the talk show.

The talk takes place tomorrow at 3 p.m. at Tea Coffee Tree, 86 Nguyen Du Street, District 1.

French TV introduces Vietnamese culture

A television channel promoting Vietnamese culture, NetViet, will be aired on the French provider Orange TV starting today. The channel is backed by Viet Nam Television Corporation (VTC).

NetViet is broadcast on VTC's channel 10 in Vietnamese with English subtitles. It is offered in Asian, European and American versions in 20 countries around the world.

The new channel will offer Vietnamese audiences in the world a diverse programme of culture, entertainment, news and talk shows.

NetViet will be shown on Orange TV's channel 524, a free-of-charge television package providing television services to about 4.8 million subscribers.

Red River Delta's spiritual singers raise voices

A festival featuring chau van singing, a traditional performing art of the Hong (Red) River Delta, will take place from today to Saturday in the northern province of Vinh Phuc and will feature singers and instrumentalists from the northern provinces.

Chau van singing - also known as hat van and hat bong - combines singing and dancing and is often performed in the hau dong (mediumship) rite of the religion of the Mother Goddess.

The songs praise beneficent deities and national heroes. The melodies are joyful and animated with tambourine, castanets and cymbal.

Don’t worry about a thing on Reggae Sunday

When people think of island rhythms in Vietnam, they can be forgiven for putting Phu Quoc ahead of Jamaica.
But Jakob Lennartsson aims to change all that.
This weekend marks the latest edition of Reggae Sunday, an ongoing event since 2008 organized by Lennartsson and the Saigon Rockers group.

“We started just because we wanted to promote reggae music in Vietnam and believe that it is a genre that Vietnamese people really can relate to and enjoy,” Lennartsson said. “There was no reggae scene in Saigon at all at that time.

“So because we wanted to educate the Vietnamese youth about reggae music we came up with the unique concept of having a day-time event on a Sunday.”

And coming up on five years later, it’s still going strong. At Reggae Sunday there are numerous different styles throughout the day within the reggae genre, such as ska, dancehall, dubstep and more. Vietnam may still be a ways from displacing saccharine pop on the airwaves, but Reggae Sunday is certainly making inroads in HCMC. The Saigon Rockers foresee bringing in more and more well-known reggae artists and finding larger venues to host their events.

Reggae Sunday kicks off at noon at Papagayo, 18 Tran Ngoc Dien Street in District 2, HCMC. Featured performers include I-Dren Artstrong, Soulflower, Ras Taro and many more throughout the day.

Entry is VND50,000 for people with student cards, and VND100,000 for others. Entry comes with a free drink and participants are encouraged to bring swimwear for a dip in the pool. A portion of the profits made goes to the charity Helping Hands Saigon.

VNN/VNS/SGT