Vietnam to host major cultural festival at World Heritage site

Vietnam will organize a national cultural festival in the central province of Thua Thien Hue on June 3-11 to honor its tourism and culture values, and help expand trade and investment cooperation with foreign partners.

The Hue Festival 2006 with the theme of "700 years of Hue Cultural Heritage with integration and development" will also bring into play cultural advantages of Thua Thien Hue, a locality with its imperial city of Hue and court music recognized as world culture heritages by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Ngo Hoa, vice chairman of the provincial People's Committee said at a press briefing here Friday.

The nine-day festival will make use of the traditional cultural space of the Hue city to stage various typical arts programs, including court music, royal dance, and folk songs and dances to be performed by troupes from Vietnam, China, France, the United Kingdom, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Argentina and Australia, he said.

Besides, fashion shows, international seminars on trade and investment, and a trade fair named "Culture-Tourism-Business Fair" will be organized, which are expected to attract hundreds of thousands of local and foreign visitors, he said.

Vietnam held three similar national festivals in the province in 2000, 2002, and 2004.

Source: Xinhua