Hanoi (VNA) – The Hue Festival 2020 is scheduled to take place in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue from April 1-6 next year, offering another chance for tourists to explore Hue – a city full of attractions, said city leaders.
Illustrative photo (Photo: VNA) With the theme "Cultural Heritage in Integration and Development – Always a New Hue", the biennial festival is expected to feature the diversification of both traditional and contemporary art and cultural performances.
“When talking about heritage and the ancient imperial citadel, people often think of something old, boring, and dull,” said Nguyen Dung, Vice Chairman of the Hue city People’s Committee at a press conference on the festival held in Hanoi on December 17.
“But in this festival, we hope visitors will find a new Hue filled with romantic beauty. They will find a Hue with profound values of spiritual culture, cuisine, poetry, music and painting.”
Dung said through hosting the biennial international festival for 20 years, the organisers have always followed the theme “cultural heritage with integration and development”.
Especially, the festival will feature high artistic and community value, Phan Ngoc Tho, Chairman of the People's Committee of Thua Thien-Hue province said.
“It will be a green festival saying no to disposable plastic products," said Thọ.
The festival will include six main programmes, including the opening ceremony, an ao dai (traditional long dress) festival, street carnival, cuisine festival, traditional music show and performance of Trinh Cong Son’s songs.
The activities will take place in Hue’s inner citadel complex, An Dinh Palace, Ngo Mon Square, Trinh Cong Son Park, Da Vien Bridge Park and other community stages throughout the city.
As many as 20 art troupes from various countries and territories like the Republic of Korea, Japan, Singapore, China, Israel, Cuba, and the US have registered to perform at the event.
Besides art shows, community cultural activities will take place, like a kite festival, science festival, beer festival, international trade fair, VNExpress Marathon Hue, and meeting of international backpackers.
An ASEAN Night will feature unique traditional costumes, contemporary fashion and music of countries in the region.
The festival will also include various environmental protection activities like “Green Sunday” and “Building a Green, Clean and Light City” to make Hue cleaner for residents and tourists.
“This is a chance to advertise Hue’s culture, Vietnamese culture as well as a chance to exchange with regional and international cultures,” said Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Minh Vu. “Hue Festival has become a professional event, with high-quality advertising and drawing the participation of art troupes from all over the world.”
The Hue Festival is a biennial celebration that has been taking place since 2000, and is one of the biggest cultural events in the country.
The Hue Festival 2018 was held with the theme: ‘Cultural Heritage with Integration and Development: Hue - One Destination, Five World Heritages’.
It attracted the participation of nearly 1,400 artists and professional actors including 388 from 24 international art troupes and nearly 1,000 from across the country.
Thousands of amateur artists also took part in the event, which welcomed more than 1.2 million visitors.
Huynh Tien Dat, Director of the Hue Festival Centre, said over 20 years, the city has achieved considerable advances in tourism services.
“Infrastructure for tourism [number of rooms] has increased ten times,” he said. “In 11 months of 2019, Thua Thien Hue province received nearly 4.8 million tourists, nearly 50 percent of which were foreigners mostly from Europe, a 7 percent year-on-year increase.”
Income from tourism this year in the province is estimated to reach some 4.9 trillion VND (211 million USD), a 10 percent from a year earlier, he said./.
