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Fly away: Canadian artist Fan Yang performs bubble art. His planned performance to celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of Ha Noi has been cancelled as the organising board cannot meet his demanding technical requirements. — File Photo |
HA NOI — The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has just submitted a document to the Prime Minister asking for permission to cancel five of the most engaging events from the 45 events set to be held for 1,000th anniversary of Ha Noi.
The cancelled events include the first International Festival of Young Bands, a Ha Noi - City of Peace circus performance, a bubble art show by Canadian artist Fan Yang, a poetry recital and light show, and a cultural festival featuring the country's 54 ethnic groups.
The ministry's Department for Performing Arts, who is responsible for the first three events, has echoed the proposal to cancel the three events as a lack of activity meant there was little chance of successfully organising the events at this late stage.
"We will not take risks to organise such events," said Vuong Duy Bien, deputy head of the department.
Bien further explained that the department had decided to cancel three of the events due to various reasons, but mainly it was due to a slow or complete lack of action on the part of the department. For example, he said, the international festival of young bands, which was supposed to have been planned in March, 2009, had not received any attention, and as a result no foreign bands had been invited.
The circus performance had been cancelled because, Bien said, there was a lack of confidence in the advice given by the Circus Federation regarding health and safety issues.
"I don't think we could guarantee the safety of the performers when they were walking a tightrope supported by two dozen-metre high cranes over a lake, for example," he said.
The bubble art show organised by Canadian artist Fan Yang was dismissed by Bien, "It's okay if they perform in a theatre," he said, "But they planned to give a performance in the open air, which would have gathered together many Vietnamese artists. A 40 -tonne technical-support van was required for the performance."
"The requirement for such a van was infeasible, let alone them wanting to perform in a space like My Dinh National Stadium," he said.
In reference to the controversial proposal to bury 1,000 objects in a time capsule, deputy director of Ha Noi Culture, Sports and Tourism Department Nguyen Khac Loi confirmed that the department would choose only one object to be buried to mark the millennium.
He said that on October 9, a day before the anniversary, a box containing the mystery object would be buried on the grounds of Ha Noi Museum. — VNS