Attending the festival for the first time as an honourable guest, Vietnam introduced visitors at the event to the country’s traditional costumes, a photo exhibition, and a reproduction of rural area cultural space featuring a thatched-roof house, bamboo furniture items and a rickshaw.
The Vietnamese cultural space, which was set up by the Vietnamese Embassy in Italy and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, also displayed typical handicraft products of Vietnam such as bamboo and rattan-made items and lacquer products.
The festival goers were also entertained with assorted performances, including a conical hat dance, water puppetry shows, an Ao Dai fashion show, and performances of traditional musical instruments, which were brought to the stage by artists from the Vietnam Contemporary Art Theatre and the Vietnam Puppetry Theatre.
The Vietnamese cultural space provided Italian people with a closer look into the Southeast Asian country, its national identity and cultural tradition.
The Festival dell’Oriente is held by many Italian localities across the country, attracting around 150,000 visitors each year.
The event draws the participation of many Asian countries, such as Japan, Laos, Thailand, China and India as it is viewed as a venue for participating countries to advertise their culture, cuisine and handicraft products.
A Vietnamese water puppetry show attracts great interest from festival goers (Photo: VNA)
