Hue Festival 2006 opens
After months of preparations, the Hue Festival 2006 has opened at Ngo Mon (the Southern Gate) Square, situated at the Hue’s flag platform on June 3 evening.
Unlike the previous festivals, foreign art troupes have not participated in this festival’s opening ceremony. All the artists are Vietnamese, giving performances on a rotation stage stretching from the Southern Gate to the flag platform.
Thousands of attendants at the festival have enjoyed more than 60 minutes of the cultural party with such performances as festive drums performed by 30 Hue’s girls in traditional long dresses, Hue’s folk songs and the Central Highlands’ gongs.
The opening ceremony has combined the stage-performing art with a typical fireworks performance by famous French artist Pierre Alain Hubert, which will “flood” Hue in colourful lights of a nine-day festival.
From June 3-11, a lot of professional art programmes will be showcased every night inside the Citadel and An Dinh Palace. These programmes will be linked to public activities of culture, tourism, and art performance, which will take place in the Citadel and its adjacent areas. All of these programmes will make Hue an imposing, impressive and attractive place to both domestic and international tourists.
Inside the Citadel and An Dinh Palace, there will be performances of Vietnamese unique art forms, especially Hue royal art and high quality art forms from many specific regions in Vietnam.
Particularly, some festivities and ceremonies under the King’s reign will be revived through the form of art performances such as “Truyen lo” festivity, Announcement Ceremony of candidates who passed the national examination, Procession Ceremony of Golden Panel (on which names of candidates who passed the national examination are written) from the Noon Gate to Van Lau Pavilion, Welcoming Ceremony of new graduate doctors to royal party held in Imperial Palace, and New Graduate Doctors Procession Ceremony from the Citadel to their hometowns for them to make an announcement and express their thanks to their ancestors.
In addition, the Nam Giao Festival will be revived with the more completion on scale in comparison with that in Festival Hue 2004 in order to represent the magnificent and imposing scene of a traditional royal festival of Vietnam, widely display the beauty of Vietnamese ritual culture and royal dress, revive the space for art performance of Royal Court Music, Royal Dance and Music, Royal March from the Citadel to Nam Giao Pavilion (part of Nam Giao Festival), ‘praise to Heaven’ ceremony at Nam Giao Pavilion, and the Royal March back to the Citadel from Trai Cung Palace (a small palace in Nam Giao Pavilion).
By Cuong Xiem Tuan - Nhan Dan - June 4, 2006.
Hue Festival exhibition and fair opens
The Hue Festival exhibition and fair has opened today at the Hue’s sports complex with 1,000 stalls, displaying various kinds of goods and featuring such activities as investment promotion, Thai food and drink and art and fashion programmes.
“The fair entitled ‘700-year-old Thuan Hoa – Phu Xuan – Thua Thien Hue – Cultural Heritage with Integration and Development’ aims to diversify the festival’s activities. This is also an opportunity to exchange culture, economy, trade and investment co-operation and to create favourable conditions for tourism development,” said Le Danh Vinh, trade deputy minister.
Nearly 1,000 pavilions are displaying high-quality goods and products from prestigious Vietnamese and foreign businesses. In addition, the exhibition also presents the achievements recorded in the 20-year national renovation process by Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Haiphong, Lam Dong province and other cities and provinces.
In the framework of the fair, a seminar on investment promotion entitled “Thua Thien Hue – Investment Potential and Opportunity” is also being held in order to introduce potential of economy and advantages of the province, aiming to attract domestic and foreign investors.
Another activity in the sideline of the fair is “Festive days honouring cultural heritage and tourism and handicrafts” with the participation of more than 100 stalls that display well-known products from craft villages nationwide.
By Cuong Anh - Nhan Dan - June 3, 2006.
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