Hue Festival to incorporate week-long international dance event

They will present solo, duet, trio and group performances in traditional, classical and modern styles.

The third edition of the dance festival is jointly organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Vietnam Dancing Artists’ Association. Outstanding performers will be awarded gold and silver medals at the closing ceremony on April 5.

Like the first edition held in 2014, the third will be part of Hue Festival, a biennial cultural extravaganza. The second dance festival was held in Ninh Binh Province in 2017.

Hue Festival 2020, one of Vietnam's biggest tourism events, is scheduled to take place from April 1-6, nearly a month before its previous editions.

It will include street carnivals, ao dai (the country’s traditional dress) shows, international food festivals and many art performances. This year, the festival will mark the 20-year milestone of Vietnam’s first internationally-acclaimed culture, arts, and tourism event.

The event will be an opportunity for international visitors to see how the heritage town has come a long way from being the imperial capital of Vietnam’s last ruling dynasty (1802-1945) to a rising tourism star in the central region, the Hue administration stated.

The VnExpress Marathon Hue 2020 will take place on April 5, alongside the festival. The race is expected to attract around 5,000 runners.

The marathon, the biggest such event to be held in Hue, will have four distances: full marathon (42 km), half marathon (21 km), 10 km and five km.

Thua Thien-Hue received more than 4.8 million visitors in 2019, an increase of 11 percent year-on-year. 2.2 million visitors were foreigners. South Koreans accounted for a third of the foreign visitors.

Hue is dense with many UNESCO-recognized heritages, including royal tombs, ancient palaces and pagodas.