Vietnam's Hue Festival exploding into life this weekend

Hue Festival, one of Vietnam's largest which is held very two years, is coming back with artists from across the world.

The festival will start with an opening ceremony at 8 p.m. on Friday at Ngo Mon Square in the former imperial capital of Vietnam and wrap up on May 2.

Performing along 15 art troupes from Vietnam are 24 troupes from 19 other countries including Australia, Belgium Brazil, China, France, India, Mongolia, Morocco, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and the United Kingdom.

With its theme “Cultural Heritage with Integration and Development”, the week-long cultural event is accompanied by a street carnival, an international food festival and a hot air balloon show and dance performances.

The former royal city was the seat of the Nguyen Dynasty which ruled the country from 1802 until the end of feudal Vietnam in 1945, so traditional court music and dragon boat racing should also not be missed.

Huynh Tien Dat, deputy director of the Hue Festival Center, said the biggest highlight of the festival will be an art performance to honor five UNESCO-recognized world heritages including the complex of Hue monuments, royal court music, woodblocks, imperial archives of the Nguyen Dynasty and the Chinese-script poetry on Hue royal architectural works.

This would be a perfect opportunity for international visitors to see how the heritage city has come a long way from the imperial capital of Vietnam’s last ruling family to a rising tourism star in the central region, officials said.

Authorities are pinning their hopes on the festival to drive up the province’s tourism industry and help Thua Thien-Hue fulfill its target of drawing 4-4.2 million tourists this year, with foreign arrivals accounting for 40-45 percent, and fetching VND4.2 trillion ($185.2 million) in tourism revenues.