HTC 2021 Festival General Director, Le Quoc Vinh
Mr. Le Quoc Vinh, Chairman of the Board of Lê Group of Companies, is the General Director and the General Art Advisor of the HTC Festival. He said about the opportunity to cooperate with Hue as well as the creative ideas about the Festival:
After a long time researching and pursuing the industry of culture and creativity, I had the opportunity to cooperate with many ministries as well as national and local agencies in this area.
It is interesting that Hue has started to shape and develop the industry of culture and creativity. Seeing the common goal between my interests and the directions of Hue, I started to find the opportunity to cooperate with Hue.
Hue is a point of convergence of factors and human resources for the development of culture and creativity. The city leaders want the HTC 2021 Festival to be a starting point to present programs and activities for the sake of developing creativity industry.
The festival is a good vehicle to convey to the local people a new concept of conservation and development of traditional craft villages. It means that it is not only the conservation of what we had, but also the momentum for traditional crafts as well as the socio-economic development of the city and the province.
As the General Director, can you tell me about the objectives of the HTC 2021 Festival?
This HTC Festival not only promotes the traditional crafts and the craft villages, but also motivates and inspires artisans to create artifacts that suit the contemporary life demands. The industries of culture and creativity are essential for the development of the local traditional crafts.
Ao-dai show at the HTC 2019 Festival
The HTC 2021 Festival will be from May 29 to June 26. There will be many changes in the programs and activities, albeit on the theme “The Quintessence of Vietnamese Craft”, with the view to creating opportunities to boost the creativity in new products. It is also to encourage craft villagers and artisans to design and make new products appropriate to the contemporary life to develop the market.
At the Festival, there will be shows and performances, as well as creative activities, among which will be a design contest and an exhibition of craft products made by individuals and organizations.
Some activities are for the promotion of Hue-specific traditional crafts, such as Ao-dai through the Ao-dai week featuring designers from Hue. Famous domestic brands will also be present, which will make it a festive atmosphere for Ao-dai. It is expected to raise the market demand, contributing to promoting the Ao-dai industry in Hue.
What are the opportunities for craft village participants at this Festival?
They will not only have the opportunity to display, present and sell their products, but will also gain the inspiration and new way of thinking to keep up with the new life. Creativity does not depend on the sole sector, but it needs a combination of different craft sectors.
There is a tendency in creativity today that different folk materials are combined in making the products that meet customer demands and trends. The design contest will help to find out solutions to traditional crafts. This is the objective of the festival.
In addition to the space that honors artisans and craft villages, and ao-dai fashion show, what are the other program and activities?
One of Thua Thien Hue’s recent goals has been the promotion of book reading, and thus there will be a one-week festival of Hue Book Fair. It will be held in an innovative way, that is, in addition to book exhibition, it emphasizes the book reading culture for the community. Therefore, the space for the Book Fair is not only for book sales, but also for book launches and reading experience exchanges, contributing to the development of book reading culture in Hue.
The Festival is scheduled for a month, including many festivities in various spaces and places on the basis of one event a week. Boosting the culinary culture and food festival are among the activities towards the development of Hue as Vietnam’s capital of Gastronomy.
Furthermore, there will be supplementary programs, including two nights of Trinh’s, rap music for the young, music for the middle-age, the Craftmanship Recital and Parade, TEDtalk-like speeches of Art and Culture, Hue Singing festival. It is expected that Hue will become a bustling city for a month with many interesting programs and activities throughout the festival.
Thank you very much!
By Thanh Huong