International Kite Festival Vung Tau – Viet Nam 2012

The 4th International Kite Festival Vung Tau – Viet Nam 2012 with the theme of “Dance of peace” will take place from March 30 to April 2, 2012 in Vung Tau City. This is one of major culture, sports and tourism events of Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province in 2012 to create opportunity for visitors to enjoy and learn more about the art of playing kite and contribute to promoting the beauty of Ba Ria - Vung Tau nationwide and worldwide.

The festival is expected to gather 80 to 100 domestic kite masters and 60 to 80 international kite masters from 26 countries and territories such as Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, China, Taiwan, Canada, USA, New Zealand, Australia, England, Germany, Holland, Italy, Brazil... Especially, the festival has the participation of the only female 2-wire and 4-wire art kite team in the world from Shenzhen (China).

This year, besides two familiar locations of Vung Tau Intourco Resort and Bien Dong Resort, the free kite flying areas are expanded to the Paradise Golf Course and Vung Tau Tourism Market.

Apart from activities such as free kite flying on the sea, Rokkaku kite competition, flute-kite competition, art kite flying with subjects, introducing the typical kite types of each country and territory, this festival will have many other activities including restoration of the traditional kite festival, kite making and flying art performance of nationwide and cultural and art programs to create an impression and private space for visitors to Vung Tau.

Red River Festival in Yen Bai

The first Red River Festival will be held from March 29 to 31, 2012 (from the eighth to tenth days of the third lunar month) at Dong Cuong Temple (Dong Cuong Commune, Van Yen District, Yen Bai Province) by the Tourism Promotion Information Center (the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Yen Bai Province) and the People's Committee of Van Yen District (Yen Bai Province).

The festival aims to develop the cultural values of the Red River in the spiritual life of the people. This activity is a part of the tourism program "Back to Roots" of three provinces of Phu Tho, Yen Bai, and Lao Cai.

As scheduled, the opening ceremony will take place in about 45 minutes with a unique art performance, including four parts: Dance of the Red River, Up waves of the Red River, Alluvial seasons of the Red River and Calls of the Red River.

Besides, there are many exciting activities of culture, arts, sports at the festival such as fair of trade – countryside market - gastronomy; exhibition with the theme of "Red River - past and present"; street exhibition; traditional making process of poonah paper; witchcraft transmission ceremony of the Dao ethnic people (Van Yen District); buffalo fighting festival and troop banquet ceremony of Tran Dynasty; boat racing, tours along the Red River; public arts festival and ethnic costumes show; professional performance arts with the popular opera play of "Brave General Ha Chuong"; presenting films, publishing books to introduce Yen Bai Tourism...

Hoa Lu Festival 2012 opens

The 2012 Hoa Lu Ancient Capital Festival celebrating 1,044 years since Dinh Tien Hoang became king of Vietnam kicked off in Truong Yen commune, Ninh Binh province on March 29.

Member of the Party Central Committee and Secretary of the Ninh Binh provincial Party Committee Bui Van Nam attended the event along with representatives from departments and agencies in Ninh Binh.

This year’s festival marks the 1,044th year since Dinh Bo Linh, who was crowned King Dinh Tien Hoang, defeated 12 warlords to unite the country and named it Dai Co Viet.

A series of cultural and sports events, including a procession to carry water from the Hoang Long River to the King Dinh and King Le temples, a drumming festival, various sports and folk games, is expected to attract thousands of tourists and local residents.

Ben Tre coconut festival great success

The third Coconut Festival came to an end in the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre On April 10, with hundreds of thousands of domestic and foreign visitors and local people taking part.

This year’s festival included an art installation of a coconut road, a coconut foods festival, a tour of a coconut plantation and a coconut carnival to celebrate the future of coconuts. A seminar on how to increase the value of coconut products was also held along with a beauty contest, for the title ‘ Miss Coconut Land ’.

During the event, Ben Tre People’s Committee met with several domestic and foreign organisations and businesses to promote Ben Tre coconut brand and attract more investment to the area.

During the festival, six investment projects with a total capital of 86 billion VND and 45.6 million USD were granted licences by Ben Tre provincial People’s Committee.

DIPR 2012 to be held in Danang

The Danang International Paramotor Race (DIPR) 2012 named "Danang - New peaks" will be first organized in Vietnam from May 23-27 with the participation of 25 athletes coming from America, France and Japan.

The race will include four contents: speed, avoiding obstacles, rescuing, and performing in a team; and promises to be an exciting performance for audience.

Speaking at a press conference, Vice Chairman of the Danang municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Xuan Anh, head of the competition board, said that the competition will introduce paramotor performance to tourists and people in the city and help Danang live up to its slogan "the city of events". “The competition sets the ground for the development of paramotor events, as well as bringing a new activity to aviation sports in Vietnam.”

During the DIPR 2012, tourists can fly with the athletes at a cost of about 1.3 million VND. Apart from that, tourist can also participate in related activities such as cuisine garden, beer garden, stalls for traditional products and beach sports.

The race will present three prizes, the first prize is worth 10,000 USD.

Hue festival honours “ao dai” in fashion show

The elegant beauty of “ao dai”, Vietnam ’s traditional long dress, will be honoured with a special performance taking place as part of the 2012 Hue Festival.

With the theme “Lotus in the fine arts”, the show will be a combination of the lotus, which is on way to becoming the national flower, and the “ao dai”, underlining their aesthetic value in the souls of Vietnamese people.

With nearly 20 designers from the length and breadth of the country and 150 models, the 90-minute show is expected to attract a large audience.

Explaining why lotus was chosen as the major theme for the show, Minh Hanh, a leading designer, said that the lotus is very familiar to Vietnamese people, especially those who live in Hue .

It is not easy to represent the beauty of the lotus in a long dress as the flower embraces all the spiritual hallmarks and purity of the Vietnamese people. However, using their own creativeness the designers have created numerous romantic images of the lotus on “ao dai”, said the designer.

Oriental cultures spotlighted at Hue festival

The ancient royal palaces in Hue seemed to travel back in time on the evening of April 10, with flags, sparkling candles, lanterns and the aroma of incense in the air, giving visitors to Hue festival a taste of life as a Royal during the Nguyen Dynasty, from 1802-1945.

The “Dem Hoang Cung” (Royal Night) event, one of the highlights at Hue festival, will be staged on the night of April 10 and 13, with a range of artistic performances of Court music and dance, traditional songs from Hue as well as its cuisine, including royal dishes.

Visitors take part in some of the scenes, such as the princess’s procession and the changing of the guard ceremony.

The Royal Night also honoured the unique cultural values of other countries in the region with a fashion show featuring traditional costumes from Japan, the Republic of Korea, India, Mongolia, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia as well as Vietnam.

2012 Hue festival wrapped up

The 2012 Hue Festival concluded on April 15 with impressive cultural performances by artists from Vietnam and countries from five continents around the world.

The large scale festival with the theme of "Cultural Heritage with Integration and Development: A Rendezvous of Historical Cities" featured a wide range of events such as art performances, culinary fairs and exhibitions.

An Australian visitor named Herman praised the beauty of Hue at night, adding that the local residents were very friendly and hospitable. He said he was very impressed with the art performances at the festival, especially the Lao Cai art troupe.

Palestinian Ambassador to Vietnam Saadi Salama highlighted the festival's organization, saying he was pleased that Hue invited art troupes from many nations to perform and introduce their cultures to the Vietnamese people and visitors.

However, some researchers said that the preservation of the unique mausoleums, temples, pagodas and traditional Hue songs should receive more attention in future festivals.