Professional and amateurs are invited to enter a street arts contest in music, dance, circus, magic, martial arts, and variety shows.

Dance group 5 Fairy performs on Nguyen Hue Walking Street in District 1.

The 2016 Street Arts Festival aims to encourage street artists, and organisers hope the first festival will give young performers a chance to develop their careers and bring them and producers and agencies together to offer new, quality entertainment to audiences.

The 10 best individuals and groups will perform in March on Nguyen Hue, which during certain times of the week is off-limits to vehicles.

Their performances will also be broadcast on Tuoi Tre TV Online.

Each participant must submit a clip of not more than five minutes featuring their performance, and it could be shot on a phone.

"We decided to join the festival because we wanted to share our love for dance with others," Pham Thanh Nghi, 20, leader of dance group 5 Fairy, said.

Nghi's group was one of the contest's first entrants after its members sent a clip of themselves waacking, a dance that involves moving the arms to the music beat.

"Waacking typically focuses on movement of the arms over and behind the shoulders. The dance also contains other elements such as posing and footwork," Nghi said, adding that his group's clip had attracted more than 140,000 views.

Other notable entries include contemporary dancer Tran Le Quoc Tri and magicians Pham Truong Giang and Nguyen Huu Duc.

The contest organised by the HCM City Centre of Performance Organising and Cinematography and Sen Vang Entertainment Company in co-operation with Tuoi Tre newspaper.

Participants should send their entries to tv.tuoitre.vn.

Prizes worth VND300 million (US$13,600) are on offer, and the winners will be announced in May.

VNS