The nine-day Hue Festival will open this week in the former imperial city of Hue, featuring both Vietnamese and international music and dance groups.

The festival, with the theme of Cultural Heritage with Integration and Development, will begin on June 3 at the Hue Imperial Citadel’s Ngo Mon (Noon Gate) and wrap up on June 11 on the Huong (Perfume) River.

The Nguyen dynasty, Vietnam ’s last royalty, will be the focus of an activity organised called the Imperial Nights, which aims to revive the beauty of the citadel at night and the Nam Giao ritual offering, an important ceremony to pray for peace and prosperity.

According to organisers, besides 750 artists and performers, the Nam Giao ceremony will be represented by 160 elders from eight villages in Hue .

Some new events have been planned for this year, including a contest to select marital arts masters and a ceremony reenacting the coronation of Emperor Quang Trung in 1788.

The ceremony will be held on Ban Mountain with the participation of more than 1,000 people and many elephants and horses.

Hue royal court music, dance music and classical drama music will be featured at the festivities.

A royal boat, designed in the Yen Nhu boat style used by the Nguyen dynasty’s kings, was recently built for the Hue Festival.

Organisers said traditional and contemporary art troupes of Vietnam and 18 countries will perform 40 programmes of dance, music, drama, circus and installation art.

Vietnamese troupes will include the Hue Opera Troupe, the Thang Long Song and Dance Troupe from Hanoi, the Bong Sen Troupe from Ho Chi Minh City and the Dao Tan Classical Drama Troupe from Binh Dinh province.

Performing groups from France, Belgium, Canada, Cambodia, China, India, Russia and the US have already arrived in Hue for the festival.

The performance programmes will include jazz and rock music, traditional music from Thailand, Cambodia, and the RoK, and a contemporary circus from France.

Sponsored by the US Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City, the blues female singer Coco York, a renowned performer and educator, will also participate in the bi- annual festival will. (VNA)