Vietnamese artists in US thrilled to perform after year-long Covid wait

On her Facebook page, senior actress Hong Dao, residing in California, could not hide her joy while packing her stuff for a trip to Crawfish Festival in Houston, where she performed a comedy on May 31.

It took her a month to prepare for the performance, Dao said. One night before her flight, she was still nervous since she had not traveled or performed for 15 months during the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Previously, packing and preparing for shows were a habit on the weekend, now I feel a little strange," Dao said.

Actress Hong Dao at a film premiere in Vietnam, August 2019. Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Nguyen.

Singer Cao Thai Son, performing in Boston on May 29, said a large audience came to watch and support him.

"Audiences and singers were apart for too long, so both are happy to see each other," Son maintained.

Singer Han Thai Tu, having more than ten shows in Houston, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Boston, said he also received a lot of applause from fans.

After his performances, Tu met his colleagues and talked about what they had done in the year-long pandemic without shows.

Most artists were fully vaccinated before departing on tours. Son, inoculated in March, has traveled and met a lot of his colleagues since then. Singer Nhu Y once rejected to perform in February as she was waiting for her second Covid-19 jab. Y said she always wears a mask and sanitizes her hands when traveling by air.

According to Nguyen Vo Viet Nam, showman in the U.S., entertainment activities are returning to normal, though there has been no show with more than 1,000 fans since people are still scared of crowds.

California, home to around 600,000 Vietnamese, is on track to fully reopen its economy on June 15.