More than 300 artisans representing famous craft villages nationwide will be participating in the 2017 Hue Traditional Craft Festival, to be held in Hue city, the central province of Thua Thien-Hue from April 28 to May 2.

Standing Vice-Chairman of the Hue municipal People’s Committee, Nguyen Dang Thanh speaks at the press briefing. 

The information was released by the organising committee at a press briefing in Hanoi on April 5. The seventh annual festival, entitled “Quintessence of Vietnamese Craft”, is a significant cultural and economic event to affirm and improve the status of the Hue ancient capital, Vietnam’s ASEAN City of Culture.

According to the Standing Vice-Chairman of the Hue municipal People’s Committee, Nguyen Dang Thanh, the traditional craft festival aims to restore, preserve and develop traditional crafts and craft villages, contributing to promoting local socio-economic development and diversifying products in service of tourism.

This year, the festival will continue honouring traditional crafts, artisans and unique products of high quality and cultural values, towards boosting the development of the economic, tourism and service sectors of Thua Thien-Hue province and its neighboring cities and provinces.

The six-day event will introduce 13 groups, including embroidery, jewelry, fine arts carpentry, brass foundry, pottery, conical leaf hat-making, paper flower and embroidery painting, along with a number of products of long-standing trademarks and traditions.

In addition, the festival also features the participation of countries, which have sister and cooperative cities with Hue.

The major focus of the festival will be the Ao dai (long dress) festival, taking place at Truong Tien Bridge on the night of April 30, and the fashion show — “Convergence of Asian Identities” — which will showcase items by 19 designers from Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia and Spain.

Notably, for the first time, the Hue Relics Preservation Centre will organise the activity of experiencing the royal palace cultural space at night at the Hue Imperial Citadel.

A space introducing food from the northern, central and southern regions of Vietnam and an exhibition showcasing antiques related to traditional crafts are also scheduled under the framework of the festival.

Nhan Dan