Hanoi (VNA)🎃 – The 2020 Hue Festival, with the theme of “Cultural Heritage with Integration and Development – Forever New Hue”, promises to offer a chance for visitors to enjoy a mix of tradition and modernity.

The 11th festival, scheduled to take place from August 28 to September 2, will mark 20 years of forming and developing a prestigious culture-art-tourism festival, which has been held biennially. The fact that the festival is going ahead despite difficulties and challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic manifests the vitality of the land which converges the cultural quintessence of the nation. The festival will be a good chance to promote Hue and Vietnam as a safe and friendly destination, creating a motivation to boost socio-economic development recovery for the central Thua Thien-Hue province. Phan Ngoc Tho, Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, confirmed the event will be an important chance for the locality to promote tourism after the COVID-19 pandemic. “The event, dubbed Cultural Heritage with Integration and Development – Forever New Hue, will bring visitors fresh and unique experiences on culture, history and art,” he said. An artistic programme will kick-start the festival at 8pm on August 28 at Ngo Mon Square, honouring the traditional and contemporary cultural values of Thua Thien-Hue and other regions of Vietnam. The programme will introduce the endless beauty of Hue - a perfectly harmonious, green, environment-friendly, and four-season flower city. A street carnival named “Colours of Cultures” will be held every day from 4.30pm from August 29 to September 2 honouring the national costumes of ASEAN countries through shows and dances. Other activities at the carnival include a procession of masks used in Tuong (classical drama), a special form of makeup art flourished under the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1883), a cultural festival that restores folk games, and a Mau (Holy Mother) procession on a river. A cuisine festival dubbed “Hue – Capital of Gastronomy” will also be held on those days at Thuong Bac Park, serving famous local dishes. A concert featuring famous songs from late, great musician Trinh Cong Son will be held at 8pm on August 30 at the Ngo Mon stage. The concert brings together famous artists whose names are attached to the songs of Trinh Cong Son as well as the young artists whose innovative styles are enthusiastically welcomed by the public. An art show titled “Who named the river” will take place at 8pm on August 31 at Nghenh Luong Dinh. The art show, which is inspired by historical information about the poetic Huong (Perfume) River, will once again reveal the mysteries of Hue and the river. Meanwhile, an Electronic Dance Music (EDM) show will be organised at 8:30pm on September 1 at Tu Do (Liberty) Stadium, attracting the participation of leading DJs in Vietnam and the region. The closing ceremony will be held at 8pm on September 2, together with an “ao dai” show. The programme, consisting of three chapters: “Urban Poetry”, “Forever New Hue” and “Hue – Flowery City”, will honour the beauty and affirm the value as well as the position of “ao dai” in Vietnamese people’s hearts, with the collections of famous designers from Hue, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Various community activities will be organised before, during and after the 2020 Hue Festival including a festival of art clubs nationwide, kite festival, beer festival, a trade fair, VNExpress Marathon Hue and fine art exhibitions. The biennial festival was initially slated for April 1-6 but was postponed due to COVID-19. 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./.