Mr. Huynh Tien Dat, Director of Hue Festival Center, Standing Deputy Head of the Organizing Committee of Hue Festival 2022
According to Mr. Huynh Tien Dat, from a festival with 80 to 90 activities and programs took place in a week like the 2018 period, now it has shortened to about 20 activities and programs, so in terms of scale, the excitement will decrease. Instead, there will be programs that are carefully and elaborately prepared.
Can you explain why the number of programs has decreased?
With the request to continue promoting the achievements of the past festivals, gradually develop a new festival model, combining tradition and modernity. There are many forms and contents to enrich festival activities while promoting endemic cultural heritage values, enhancing international exchanges and cooperation, and creating tourism products throughout the four seasons of the year, so the Provincial People's Committee approved the project of organizing the festival in the direction of four seasons.
Previously, festivals and programs took place in one week. This makes it impossible for residents and visitors to see all of them because many of them happened at the same schedule. Therefore, in order to maximize the attraction, many activities and festivals, such as Poetry Festival, Kite Festival, Children's Festival, Science Festival, etc., are separated from the week of Hue Festival and held at suitable times in each of four seasons of the year. This will be an opportunity for these festivals and programs to upgrade to a larger-scale and more attractive activity.
What is the purpose of the change, sir?
The four-season festival will chain and redistribute cultural and artistic activities, folk festivals, royal festivals, and new festivals with quality and scale commensurate with their potential and cultural characteristics, which creates the identity of the ancient capital, meeting the needs of visitors to visit, explore and enjoy in a suitable time frame, not combined but spread evenly throughout the year.
The organizers affirmed that although the scale is reduced, the core brands of the festival will be maintained and promoted.
Organizing a series of festival activities throughout the year is to honor and promote the specific cultural features of the land, exploit the strengths of landscapes and spiritual tourism. Increasing the attraction of the destination, contributing to the development of local tourism, culture, economy - society, Hue would truly become the unique Festival City of Vietnam.
Hue Festival 2022, particularly, will inherit the achievements of the previous festivals and be in the chain of the four-season festival appropriately, enriching the festival activities.
Hue Festival's main brand name associated with the theme "Cultural heritage with integration and development" is where the artistic quintessence of the countries around the world converges and exchanges. Therefore, despite being greatly affected by the pandemic, one thing certain is that Hue Festival 2022 will have many international delegations participating.
Currently, out of a total of 17 delegations from 16 countries that the organizing committee invites to participate, 8 of them have confirmed delegations, the rest are waiting for air tickets and some procedures in the host country.
Festivals and activities held throughout festivals such as Ao Dai Festival, Street Festival, Trinh Cong Son Music, etc., create the festival's brand name. It is also the "soul" of the festival that must be kept and continued to raise. In addition many community-and-visitors-oriented activities that become the festival subjects, the organization of which will be maintained to create a joyful and vibrant atmosphere for Hue.
So what are the important highlights of Hue Festival 2022, sir?
Hue Festival 2022 is held as a demonstration of the great effort and determination of the province, preparing opportunities for a new year with new hopes for development, especially in culture, economy, and tourism in the current period. Based on the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the motto of safe and flexible adaptation, effective disease control, and ensuring socio-economic development, events within the framework of Hue Festival 2022 will be held within a reasonable and flexible time frame.
The program "Opening Festival Night" opens the series of activities of Hue's established art festivals, bringing together Hue's unique art groups, unique groups, art groups, and solo singers of high artistic quality in the cultural regions of Vietnam and the world. Next, there will be the performance program of domestic and international art groups, Ao Dai Festival, Street Festival "Colors of Culture", Le Te Giao (Giao ritual ceremony), Trinh Cong Son Music Program, Hue Nam Temple Festival, Boat Racing Festival, Vesak Celebration Program, Vegetarian Food Week, Hue Kite Festival, Hue Lotus Festival, Ao Dai’s Day, the program "Who named the river", etc.
Facing the impacts of the pandemic, will there be any difficulties for the Festival?
The big difficulty is maintaining the international festival brand name. When the pandemic affects the economy, many countries do not send art groups as large as before. Many countries traditionally attached to the festival have yet to officially confirm their participation. Countries that have confirmed send a smaller number of artists. This will force the organizing committee to think about the domestic coordination solution to create scale.
Fundraising work this year is also facing many difficulties because many businesses are affected by the pandemic.
According to the latest announcement, Hue Festival will change the organization time, can you be more specific about this change?
Planned from the beginning of the year, Hue Festival will be held from the 9 to the 13 of April, now changed to the 25 to the 30 of June. This change is for several reasons. After the reopening on March 15, the time for the festival was too close, and the information was informed late, so international delegations could not find flights. Therefore, they want to change the time to be able to come to Vietnam.
Another reason is that the pandemic has been controlled and the approach to organizing festivals during the pandemic has also changed to suit the new situation. Changing the organization time is also a condition for the organizing committee to better prepare for a new and different festival.
Hue Festival has been organized again after 4 years; so, the organization is even more meaningful to affirm that Thua Thien Hue is the leading locality in organizing a contemporary form of the national and international festival, which is Hue Festival.
Over 20 years with 10 seasons, Hue Festival has become a remarkable festival in the system of festivals around the world. The role and position of Hue Festival are increasingly confirmed through the process of building and developing the brand name. Therefore, difficulties will be surmounted by the organizing committee day by day, bringing a typical festival season to Hue.
Thank you, Sir!
By Duc Quang