International event: The official image of the Hue Festival 2014. The nine-day event will feature art troupes from five continents.

HA NOI (VNS) — Art troupes from five continents will participate in the eighth biennial Hue Festival next year, organisers have announced.

From April 12-20, the festival, entitled Cultural Heritage with Integration and Development, will re-enact unique royal celebrations, along with a wide range of community activities.

Of note, as part of Hue Festival 2014, the meeting of ASEAN + 3 Ministers Responsible for Culture and Arts will take place April 16-21, plus a food festival introducing specialties from Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand will be held.

"With each festival we have a chance to re-enact our traditional festivals and cultural distinctions. This year, we aim to highlight Hue Royal music and folk songs," said standing vice chairman of the People's Committee of Thua Thien-Hue Province, Ngo Hoa, at a press conference in Ha Noi yesterday.

Also, the night of April 16 will witness an exclusive spectacle honouring Hue folk music along with a range of other activities.

"Festival 2014 is of overriding significance because it assembles the ancient capital cities of Viet Nam and other countries, and continues to be a special cultural exchange within the framework of the Forum for East Asia and Latin America Co-operation, initiated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," Hoa said.

"We focus on tradition, but through novel presentations with much focus on the community, so local residents and visitors alike can both enjoy and be directly involved in festive activities," said Hoa.

"Festival 2014 will expand its performance space to make it accessible to a majority of local people. This is to say that activities will tour rural areas, visit industrial zones, schools and hospitals," said Hoa, adding that cultural spaces and sports facilities, particularly public spaces will be made full use of.

As France remains the main partner since its first festival in 2000, the 2014 festival expects to see leading art troupes from more than 30 countries, including the drumming ensemble Batiholic and Eisa troupe (Japan), the Court Music Troupe and Court Dance Troupe (South Korea), Miam Monster (Wallonie-Bruxelles Regioni), Micachu (the UK), SISU percussion ensemble (Norway), Amigos Band (the US), OSP Nadarzyn (Poland), the Folkloric Ballet of Guadalajara and Mariachi band (Mexico), Sururu na Roda Band (Brazil), La Colmenita (Cuba), the Jazz/Afro-folk artist Gasandji (Congo), Hanen traditional art troupe (China), and folk ensemble Srisan (Slovakia).

Also, the French Carabosse Company will join in with their large-scale sculpture exhibition using fire on the 115-year-old Truong Tien Bridge.

"The opening ceremony will not only make use of national traditional art materials, as previous ceremonies did, but combine that with the world's contemporary art," the festival's art director, vice president of Viet Nam Association of Dancing Artists Le Ngoc Cuong said, as she talked about the opening art performance.

"Both Vietnamese and international art troupes will jointly perform at the opening night."

Throughout nine days, traditional and contemporary art performances will be staged each night at venues inside the Citadel and An Dinh Palace, along with outdoor stages in the vicinity of Hue.

Every afternoon, festival goers can enjoy and partake in street performances themed as Heritages and Cultural Colours by art troupes from East Asia and Latin America.

For the first time, the festival will host the new-style circus Lang Toi (My Village), which marks its official debut in its home country after over 300 performances in France and Europe.

Sideline activities include exhibitions, traditional kite flying, calligraphy, installation art, street art, music performances, workshops, an international trade fair, sporting activities, gastronomy and sightseeing tours, to fascinate tourists and the public through the day and night.

"Hue Festival is the first-ever international festival in Viet Nam and has built up a brand full of vitality and typical features. I'm convinced that the coming festival will be a destination of cultural heritage and contemporary arts, and a special cultural activity," said the general secretary of Viet Nam National Commission for UNESCO, Pham Cao Phong.

"The festival is a good chance for Viet Nam to promote the image of a nation with thousand of years of civilisation, a love for peace, and an outlook for continuous renewal and comprehensive international integration."

The province expects to receive some 200,000 visitors during the festival, almost half of which will be from outside the country.

For further information, please visit www.huefestival.com. — VNS