Tourists experiencing the pottery craft at Phuoc Tich ancient village

Preserving traditional crafts

Taking place for the first time in 2005, Hue Traditional Craft Festival has become an annual event, which plays an important role in the development of the City’s culture, entertainment, society, tourism and business.

Through the eight festivals, the position of Hue city has been upgraded and affirmed as the Festival city of Vietnam. In March 2020, the Asian Festival Association recognized Hue Traditional Craft Festival as the typical festival of Asia.

Along with raising the status of a Festival City, Hue Traditional Craft Festival also contributes to the preservation and restoration of Hue’s traditional crafts and those of other cities and provinces, and promotes the process of vocational training, investing in machinery and equipment to develop new products.

Through the festivals, new spots to introduce and promote traditional crafts have been formed while many tourist destinations have been invested by the State and the private sector such as: Phuong Duc bronze casting village center, Nguyen Dinh Chieu pedestrian street, Tinh Tam Kim Co, the space on both banks of the Perfume River and parks and green spots in the area. Since then, traditional crafts and craft villages have many prospects for revival, development and economic benefits, such as: pháp lam (vitreous enameled bronze), wood carving, pottery, embroidery, Ao dai sewing...

In addition, spaces for performing and displaying craft products has been gradually shaped, creating a stable and long-term festival space. The scale of the festival also changed from time to time, from introducing a few professions to many, scaling up from the city-level festival to national one, and gradually becoming an international festival.

Themed “The Quintessence of Vietnamese Traditional Crafts”, the 9th Hue Traditional Crafts Festival - 2023 will take place from April 28th, 2023 to May 5th, 2023. In particular, the festival will be kicked off with the opening ceremony on the evening of April 28th and ended with the closing ceremony on the evening of May 5th, 2023.

This is one of the major events held every 2 years in order to contribute to preserving and promoting the value of traditional crafts, promoting them to tourists, and stimulating the tourism industry. At the same time, it enhances the image and position of Hue - the typical Festival City of Vietnam. The main space of the festival stretches along the banks of the Perfume River and the downtown areas.

An art performance at Hue Festival 2022

Brand name enhancement

According to leaders of Hue City People's Committee, Hue Traditional Crafts Festival 2023 brings together many practical programs and activities, including spaces for exhibition, demonstration and introduction of traditional handicraft products of international cities (from April 28th to May 5th), spaces for exhibition, demonstration and introduction of handicraft products and traditional craft villages of Hue and some typical localities in the country (from April 28th to May 5th), the gastronomy festival with the theme of “The quintessence of rice noodles”, the cultural and art exchange program between Hue city and its domestic and international sister cities/partner cities (on the evening of April 29th); the ceremony and a procession to commemorate the patrons of all crafts (in May 5th)…

In addition, there will be many vibrant community held from May 1st to 5th, such as a vote for typical handicraft products, new records establishment for traditional crafts, “Thuan An – Call of the Sea” Festival, the creative handicraft space…

Hue City will coordinate and connect with the Department of Culture and Sports, the Department of Tourism, Hue Festival Center and relevant authorities to organize activities in response to the Four Seasons Festivals 2023, celebration activities for key holidays in 2023 to propagandize and promote Hue - Festival City_ an ASEAN’s Cultural City, ASEAN’s Environmentally Sustainable City...

In terms of the festival’s scale and organizational plan, the city focuses on introducing unique products of Hue’s traditional crafts and craft villages of provinces and cities nationwide and internationally such as jewelry, embroidery, Pháp lam, mosaic carving, bronze casting, wood fine art, Trúc chỉ art (bamboo paper painting), kites, cuisine...

The target audience of this festival is domestic and international tourists, local people, people who are interested in festivals, traditional culture, entertainment, and domestic and international businesses.

The festival aims at honoring culture, reproducing, embellishing, preserving and promoting the traditional and contemporary cultural values of Vietnam, the values of Hue’s and Vietnam’s traditional crafts, promoting the trade, economy and service development, and the tourism’s economic recovery, promoting the image, introducing the culture, country and people of Vietnam and Hue to people around the world, communicating Hue's image through a new, dynamic and creative perspective.

Story: Thanh Huong

Photos: Duc Quang - Dang Tuyen