Nhan Dan- The International Gongs Festival will be held in the Central Highland province of Gia Lai from November 12 to 15, with the participations of various ethnic groups in Vietnam and in South East Asia.

For the first time, such a big Gong event is held after Gong music and culture is recognised by UNESCO as an oral and intangible cultural heritage. Villages and hamlets in central Vietnam are busy with final touches for the successful festival.

Pleiku city is where the festival takes place. Hundreds of workers are now busy preparing the stages, theatres and the exhibition areas for the festival. There will be several fairs to be organised on the sideline of the festival, including the high quality Vietnamese products fair and the Traditional Handicraft Village Fair. The streets leading to the city centre are nicely decorated with banners, flowers and lights, adding more beauty to the already gorgeous city.

Lighting systems, viewing houses, parks and performance stages for the event are nearly complete. The Dong Xanh Park, about five kilometers from the city centre, is chosen to revive some traditional community activities, such as Gong music performance, traditional sculpture, new rice festival performance, culinary festival, etc.

Not just people in Pleiku city are excited about the occasion, but also those living from afar. Oi Chroanh, living in Krong Pa district and his team of 20 young people are making final rehearsal. This is their first performance for foreign tourists, and Oi Chroanh is determined to make this a memorable one. He possesses some of the most precious Gongs, some worth up to 40 cows. But he is willing to let people use his Gong set in an effort to disseminate the Gong culture.

The province’s head, Chairman Pham The Dung says that the Gong festival is aimed at praising the traditional culture, and educating the young people and foreigners about the unique culture of Vietnam. At the same time, this is an opportunity for locals to learn from others, who also posses precious aspects of Gong culture.

On this occasion, there will be many sidelines activities, such as investment promotion workshop, conference on the socio-economic development and impacts on the preservation of Gong culture, a fair of high quality Vietnamese products with over 450 booths from 200 enterprises, a fair of handicraft villages with over 30 booths, presenting Vietnamese special products by the Central Highlands artisans.

Delegations from other countries, including Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, will also bring their unique culture to the festival, creating more significance for the event.

Although this is the first time such festival is organised in the Central Highlands, thorough preparations and support from all related agencies and organizations promise this to be an impressive and memorable festival for local and foreign visitors.