Review of Hue Festival 2016

The festival helps promote the image of Hue – a city rich in culture and heritage but also very dynamic and ready to integrate globally. Let’s learn more about the differences and uniqueness of the festival this year.

Besides programs focusing on traditional Vietnamese art, costumes and rituals, such as the Nam Giao offering ritual to pray for peace, favorable weather conditions and prosperity, Imperial Night or the traditional Vietnamese ao dai fashion show, this year’s festival hosted some new programs, such as the Quảng chiếu, also known as the Buddhist celebration of universal illumination and other musical events.

"We must keep renewing the programs and add new angles and aspects to our show to keep the audience interested. Therefore, the combination of traditional values and contemporary aspects will bring new breath to the show. We focus on the youth, therefore we organized a hip-hop show and a rock concert at the stadium to attract more young people to come." - Nguyen Dzung, Vice Chairman of the Thua Thien Hue People’s Committee.

This year's festival also focuses more on the cultural exchange and fusion between East and West. The collaboration between Vietnamese artists and Belgian artists in a mime play called 'To see or not to see' is an example.

"It’s very easy to understand each other without any words because sometimes the words are too complicated. It’s very easy to communicate just with a smile or with the eyes." - Jean Louis Danvoye, Belgian pantomime artist, Wallonie Bruxelles delegation.

"We don’t have to worry about the techniques because we all know them very well. We care more about the chemistry between us, how to improvise and support each other to bring surprises and laughter to our audience." - Vu Hoang Tung, Vietnamese pantomime artist, Youth Theater, Hanoi.

Besides the new programs added to the schedule, Hue Festival 2016 also had a new approach to incorporating tourism into the program. Instead of lasting 9 to 12 days like the previous program, this year's program was shortened to six days, allowing organizers to implement two shifts of three-day tours to offer tourists.  According to the latest statistics, there were 250,000 visitors to Hue during the festival period, an increase of 23% compared to the previous festival. The 9th Hue Festival creates a momentum for next festival to promote the image of Hue to the world, contributing to tourism development.