As heard at a press conference held in the central province of Thua Thien – Hue
on May 3, the event attracted over 600 reporters from about 100 domestic news
agencies and 12 foreign journalists, who produced more than 6,000 news items and
articles on the festival.
The Hue Festival 2018 featured enticing art shows depicting different cultures
of Vietnam and other regions all over the world, said Nguyen Dung, Vice Chairman
of the provincial People’s Committee and head of the festival organising board.
The six-day event offered stages for close to 1,400 performers representing 25
countries and territories including Vietnam. Audiences were treated to 80 stage
shows and nearly 50 community activities.
Aiming to celebrate 712 years since the founding of Thuan Hoa - Phu Xuan, which
is Hue today, the festival was themed ‘Cultural Heritage with Integration and
Development: Hue - One Destination, Five World Heritages’.
“Van hien kinh ky”, a highlight of the festival, was an art show which combined
a variety of elements: dance, chorus, animation, poem reciting and music. The
90-minute show featured all cultural values of Hue through heritage elements.
Meanwhile, a show, titled “Am vong Song Huong” (Resonance of Perfume River),
involved hundreds of professional and amateur actors and actresses, depicting
the life cycle of people living on the rivers from their marriage, giving birth
and raising children to passing down their occupation from generation to
generation in a joint effort to preserve Hue cultural values.
Hue city was the imperial capital of Vietnam for hundreds of years. It is home
to five UNESCO-recognised heritages, namely the Hue ancient citadel relic
complex – a World Cultural Heritage site; Nha Nhac (Hue royal court music) - an
intangible cultural heritage item; Nguyen Dynasty’s wood blocks – a documentary
heritage item; Nguyen Dynasty’s Chau ban (royal administrative documents) – part
of the Asia-Pacific Register of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme; and
literature on Hue royal architecture - a documentary heritage.
Source: VNA