Craft village festival opens in Hanoi

As many as 300 pavilions from 22 traditional craft villages across the country showcased their unique products at a festival which opened on October 7 at Hanoi’s Quan Ngua Sports Place.

The Hanoi Craft Village Festival 2015, jointly organised by Hanoi’s Department of Culture and Sports, the Department of Tourism, and the Joint Stock Company of Vietnam Trade and Commercial Bank (Vietcombank), forms part of activities to celebrate the capital city’s Liberation Day (October 10).

The event aims to honour outstanding craft villages and artisans, including pottery, rattan bamboo handicraft, embroidery, silk brocade, folk pictures, sculpture, and bronze casting.

The opening ceremony featured the ritual processing craft ancients, traditional art performances, folk games and traditional cuisine.

Director of the Department of Culture and Sports To Van Dong said Hanoi is home to more than 1,000 craft villages, 300 of which are recognised the traditional ones.

The city has undertaken a number of measures to promote traditional craft products in tandem with development tourism, Dong added.

Luong Manh Hai, who is the owner of the Bau Co pottery-kiln workshop in Bat Trang trade village brought to the exhibition more than 50 pottery products. He said the event presents opportunities for him to introduce the quintessence of the century-old traditional craft village of Bat Trang to potential partners at home and abroad.

Meanwhile, Director of the Newstartours Travel Agency Luong Duy Ngan highlighted the potential for trade village tourism in Hanoi.

The festival contributes to preserving and developing traditional trade villages in Hanoi in particular and in the country in general, Ngan said, adding that it helps connect travel agencies with trade villages to promote local tourism potential.

The festival runs until October 11.-VNA