Walking tall: Belgian performers march in a parade at the Hue Festival in 2010. Seeking sponsors for and privatising more of the festival events is a strategy to increase the festival's success. — VNA/VNS Photo Anh Tuan

THUA THIEN-HUE — Organisers of the biennial Hue Festival were aiming to seek sponsors for and privatise more of the festival events as a strategy to increase the festival's success, Hue Festival Centre director Nguyen Duy Hien told a recent meeting in the former royal city.

Since its first year in 2000, the event has received financial supports from foreign embassies and cultural organisations which sent troupes of performers to participate in the festival, and from domestic cultural organisations and enterprises such as Vietnam Airlines which have offered sponsorship.

Hue Festival 2012, scheduled to take place next month, had received billions of dong from such significant sponsors as Vietcombank, the Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV) and the Hue Brewery, Hien said. Vietnam Airlines would again be the official transportation sponsor for the event.

Originated as an art exchange programme between the city of Hue and the Viet Nam-France Codev Association in 1992, the festival has evolved into a remarkable cultural event that attracts thousands of Vietnamese and foreign artists and performers. — VNS