According to the organizing committee of the Festival, advertising activities for Hue Festival 2008 have been conducted quite early compared to previous years. As such, more and higher quality artistic groups are participating in the festival with representatives from four continents.
Up to now, 36 hotels in the area have received their star rating (one five-star hotel, six four-star hotels, six three-star hotels and 23 hotels of one to two stars). As of February 2008, 149 organizations are providing accommodation, three more than in 2007. The numbers of rooms and beds across the province reaches 4,805 and 9,300, respectively. Besides, some other hotels are under construction and planned to be put into operation prior to Hue Festival opening. Some other spots such as Chin Ham heritage site, My An hot mineral springs and Huong Giang hotel are being either upgraded or expanded, preparing for the festival.
With a view to creating more tourism routes and scenic areas to serve tourists in the festival, the Department of Tourism held a trip for international tourism enterprises in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Quang Nam and Quang Tri to pay visits to certain famous landscapes. Beside successful tourism areas and activities such as the Royal Palace area, My An mineral hot springs and Royal Music on the Perfume River, tourism enterprises organize new tours, including watching Kungfu performances at Van Van temple, paying visits to Le Ba Dang artistic display center and tombs in An Bang, and Huyen Tran Princess’ temple. The Tourism Department is also cooperating with Phong Dien, Phu Vang, Huong Thuy and Phu Loc to complete scripts for the programmes of “the soul and beauty of traditional villages”, “ Thuan An – the calling sea”, and “Market fair in the countryside”, which are planned to take place during Hue Festival 2008.
"Cutural Heritage with Integration and Development”
Themed “Cultural Heritage with Integration and Development”, Hue Festival 2008 will continue to develop on the achievements of Hue Festival 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006 in the direction of improving artistic quality and professional characteristics in order to deserve the position of a centre of culture and tourism, and Vietnam’s city of festivals. This will be an international cultural and tourist festival, a forum for cultural and art exchanges among Vietnam and regional countries. Hue Festival 2008 will be of Vietnamese and Hue cultural identity, expanding international exchange and socio-economic development by advancing Vietnam tourism.
The centre of the Festival is the appealing space of Hue Citadel by night, with numerous stages, royal feasts and attractive, luxurious and exciting royal games. Beside the Citadel, An Dinh Palace, Thuy Tien Lake, and other places in Hue City and the surrounding countryside will be organized as centres for festival with spectacular art performances, folk games, gastronomy streets, fairs of handicrafts, tourism and trade.
Hue Festival 2008 will officially start on the evening of June 3rd, 2008 at Ngo Mon Square and end on the Perfume River on the evening of June 11th, 2008. One month before the Opening Ceremony, the run-up to the Festival will begin with lots of diversified and exciting festivities to welcome Hue Festival 2008.
Hue Festival 2008 will have typical art performances of Vietnamese culture, especially Hue royal art performances, cultural art performances from countries around the world (France, China, the U.K, Italy, the US, Korea, Belgium, Thailand, Canada and Japan). This will be the first time that artistic groups from Africa and North America are present at the Festival.
The fifth International Sculpture Symposium officially opened on May 3rd, 2008 at Abalone Resort. Lots of other exciting and attractive festivities to welcome Hue Festival 2008 will be held across the city and neighbouring areas. The Festival will continue to revive unique royal festivals of the Hue ancient capital with wide scale and high quality performances with the participation of a great number of artists, actresses, actors and the public.
Beside traditional programmes and festivals, Hue Festival 2008 continues to praise the unique beauty of Vietnam’s Ao dai and Hue’s Ao dai with modified features.
In Hue Festival 2008, plenty of diversified cultural and tourism activities and festivals will take place in Hue’s famous monuments and its adjacent areas, palaces and tombs, ancient towns and traditional trade villages. Tourists will have a chance to discover the diversified lifestyle of Hue ancient capital; to go on a pilgrimage to Hue’s famous pagodas; to join traditional festivals and folk festivals; to discover the cultural beauty of the ancient capital; to pay visits to the tombs of the Kings and other poetic and mysterious places, as well as to enjoy Hue’s tasty traditional dishes. Notably, there will be an attractive and unique program with the title of “Discovering the legend of Perfume River”.
The Festival will attract the participation of prestigious enterprises from domestic and overseas in many goods categories with diversified and high quality products. Hue Festival market fair 2008, due to take place between June 3rd and June 9th, aims to further affirm and develop the culture and tourism strength of Thua Thien Hue Province in the key central region economic zone.
Looking forward to the city of international festival 2020
Once the root of Hue Festival is mentioned, the Vietnamese – French cultural festival, co-organised between Hue city and Codev in 1992, cannot be ignored. It was at this festival that the idea of a festival with cultural activities and unique festivities was formed, which later resulted in the birth of Hue Festival 2000. Since then, Hue Festival has been organized every two years at a larger scale and in a more professional manner.
While Hue Festival 2000 was only in Hue Imperial city, the 2008 festival has expanded beyond this area to adjacent areas in the province. Tourists will enjoy festivities revived for the first time, including the enthronement ceremony of Quang Trung – Nguyen Hue King, the program to discover “the Legend of Perfume River” and the examination of martial arts students.
The international features of Hue Festival are increasing, as the number of participants in the festival witnesses continuous growth. From just five nations having artistic programmes to perform at Hue Festival 2000, the number has grown fivefold in Hue Festival 2008. The border of such nations does not stop at ASEAN, but reaches other parts in the world.
As such, it can be affirmed that Hue Festival is an attractive and prestigious brandname, helping improve the political, cultural, tourism and diplomatic position of Thua Thien Hue, not only in national and regional terms, but on the international stage as well. Hue Festival also makes a considerable contribution to the province’s socio-economic development.
Recently the Prime Minister has named Hue as Vietnam’s first city of festivals. The People’s Committee of Thua Thien Hue is determined to place Hue among ASEAN’s cities of festivals in 2010 and become the world’s city of festivals in 2020; considering the motto “Cultural Heritage with Integration and Development” as a driving force for socio-economic development.
K. Trinh
Vietnamese
