HCM City (VNA) – The second Book and Nighttime Culture Festival opened on the evening of January 2 at Nguyen Van Binh Book Street in Ho Chi Minh City’s Sai Gon ward, marking another step in expanding cultural activities at night for residents and visitors to the city.
Co-organised by the municipal Department of Culture and Sports, the Vietnam Publishers Association and relevant units, the event follows a pilot programme held in late November 2025. This edition aims to further promote reading culture while gradually shaping a vibrant nighttime cultural space in the city centre.
Running for three days from January 2, the festival offers a wide range of activities catering to diverse interests. Highlights include creative and experiential workshops such as “Design Your Vision Board,” which guides participants in planning personal goals, and “ArchiTea,” an activity combining tea culture with architectural heritage. Cultural and artistic exchanges are also featured, including performances of southern folk music Don ca tai tu and a talk show titled “From Home-style Vietnamese Dishes to Million-dollar Vietnamese Cuisine.”
In the evenings, acoustic music performances by young bands add a relaxed atmosphere to the event. Meanwhile, various booths introduce visitors to Vietnamese coffee and tea, traditional cakes, books, pop-up libraries, architecture and design displays, folk games, calligraphy, and handicraft experiences, offering a multi-sensory journey into Vietnamese culture.
According to Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Book Street Le Hoang, activities at Nguyen Van Binh Book Street traditionally ended around 18:00, causing the area to quiet down in the evening. The organisation of the Book and Nighttime Culture Festival is seen as an effort to extend operating hours and maintain a continuous flow of cultural activities from morning to night, keeping the book street lively from 9:00 to 22:00.
Beyond remaining a familiar destination for readers, the book street now contributes to the city’s nighttime cultural life, meeting the public’s demand for weekend recreation, cultural enjoyment and relaxation.
Nguyen Thi Mai Khanh, a resident of Nhieu Loc ward, said the nighttime operation of the book street offers a fresh and pleasant experience, allowing her to read, enjoy artistic performances and spend quality time with her family in a cultural setting well suited to weekends.
Guy Tran, a French-Vietnamese touring the book street with his wife and two children, shared that this was his family’s first trip back to Vietnam together. He praised the festival for bringing books and traditional folk games such as bamboo dancing and figurine modelling closer to the public, calling it a meaningful and creative idea./.
