The return of Festival Hue

What’s new at this year’s festival?

Festival Hue is the first contemporary festival in Vietnam inspired by famous city festivals across the globe such as France’s Avignon Festival, Australia’s Adelaide Festival, Scotland’s Edingburgh Festival and South Korea’s Geyongju Festival. Festival Hue is a chance to showcase the province’s cultural heritage, particularly those aspects recognised by UNESCO. The unique cultural identity make Festival Hue an event like no other.

Since the first Hue Festival in 2000, eight biannual festivals have been successfully organised, making it a well-known tourism brand in the mind of both local and foreign tourists and earning it a place on the world festival map.

The ninth Hue Festival will be held from April 29 to May 4, with the theme of the 710th Anniversary of Thuan Hoa – Phu Xuan – Thua Thien Hue, Cultural Heritage with Integration and Development. A premier event in this country, the festival is held in association with the cultural and historical milestones of Hue: celebrating 710 years since the founding of Thuan Hoa – Phu Xuan (now Thua Thien Hue), and the 380th-year anniversary of the establishment of Hue City. It will feature a host of extraordinary cultural and tourism activities, art performances and various vibrant community celebrations to reaffirm the reputation that it has built up over the years.

What can tourists expect from the atmosphere at the ninth festival event?

Building on the success of previous festivals, Festival Hue 2016 continues to attract a vast number of colourful cultural performers. This year’s event offers a wonderful chance for exchange among representative art genres from different world cultures and the quintessence of Vietnam’s cultural and artistic heritage, especially that of Hue. Many stunning traditional and contemporary art performances from Vietnam and other countries from five continents, including France, Belgium, UK, Russia, Denmark, Poland, Maroc, China, South Korea, Japan, Israel, SriLanka, Austria, America, Mexico, Chile and Colombia will be staged inside the Citadel, An Dinh Palace and in other open venues across the city.

Hue Festival 2016 will also showcase more than 50 unique royal procedures in mysterious settings, with the highlights being the Imperial Night, Xa Tac and Nam Giao Royal Offering Ritual ceremonies, as well as many programmes presenting the quintessence of Hue’s Royal art, Buddhist ritual music and dance, and street parades with performances from domestic and international artists. Unprecedented and exciting community activities will take place throughout the festival with the participation of a large number of artists and interaction with the public. A variety of side events such as exhibitions, traditional kite flying, hot-air balloons, calligraphy, installation art, street music and fine arts, workshops, an international trade fair, sporting activities, gastronomy and sightseeing tours will fascinate tourists and locals alike.

This year we will also host a very special event – the first meeting of the Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation in Hue city.

The previous festivals lasted around nine days, but this year’s event will last only six. Why is this and will it affect the quality of the festival?

This year’s festival retains its key concept of cultural heritage combined with economic development and international integration. It includes cultural and art performances and cultural exchange.

The target is to create three-day programmes for travellers to explore the beauty of Hue’s culture, land and people. During each three-day programme, there will a harmonious arrangement of local and international cultural and art performances as well as the typical ceremonies of the ancient capital.

This year, based on the current situation and the suggestions of related authorities and tourism experts, we decided to organise the festival on the public holidays from April 29 to May 4 with two programmes only.

This will not affect the quality of Festival Hue because the quality is not based on the number of days, but on the quality of events relating to the cultural identity of Hue and Vietnam.

With this year’s festival being held during public holidays, it is expected to attract even more people.

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