HCM City to host ao dai festival

HCM City (VNA) – HCM City will launch a series of cultural and arts activities featuring the traditional Vietnamese ao dai during March as part of the city's third annual Ao Dai Festival.

The month-long festival aims to honour and promote traditional cultural values as well as the beauty and grace of the ao dai, which has become the symbol of feminine beauty in Vietnam.

The event will open with a music show and ao dai performance titled Ao Dai – Ve Dep Bat Tan (Ao Dai – Everlasting Beauty) on March 8 at the city's Youth Cultural House.

The house will host a fair offering ao dai and accessories like handbags, clogs and palm-leaf conical hats from March 18 to 20.

The city's Tourism Department will cooperate with the Culture and Sports Department to organise bike parades from the house to the city's cultural and historic sites on March 6, 13 and 20.

The parades featuring students in ao dai call for local residents to work together to make the city more friendly and beautiful in the eyes of tourists.

Many photo exhibitions at the Fine Arts, War Remnants and Ao Dai museums will showcase ao dai designs worn at different times from March 5 to 31.

The exhibitions aim to introduce both people and foreigners to the beauty of the costume.

A beauty contest featuring people wearing ao dai will be held at the Ao Dai Museum in District 9.

The event is expected to attract about 500 people who work at local and diplomatic agencies and organisations in the city.

The city will also organise a photo contest depicting people wearing ao dai and an ao dai design contest, as well as talks and discussions on the history of ao dai and its important role in the people's life.

Nguyen Bao Anh, Deputy Director of the city's Tourism Promotion Centre, said: "The Ao Dai Festival is the city's outstanding event which has gained attention from both local and foreign people."

"This year, the city will actively encourage local people, especially those working in the tourism sector, to wear ao dai in the workplace during the event to show the beauty of the costume," he said.-VNA