Thursday, June 12, 2008
Hue Festival Day 2
The second day at the Hue Festival was even more incredible than the first. I went to 3/2 park and saw an art exhibit. All the paintings were done by disabled children and were on the subject of fairytales. Here Tam met Sleeping beauty and superman shook hands with King Huong.
The colorful paintings were hanging from clothes lines and I shopped around, finally deciding on a beautiful rendering of Tam, the Vietnamese Cinderella.
That evening I went to the Citadel for more events at the musical festival. The Citadel was astonishingly beautiful at night, the paths being lit by candles and Chinese paper lanterns. The stage I wanted was at the back, but I sampled some Thai music and dancing on the way. Finally I arrived at the stage, which was set inside the ruins of a small house. One mahogony chiar sat in the orange lit frame while we sat on plastic stools waiting for the show to start.
First came the Ao Dai Fashion show. Both older and younger women modeled versions of the Ao Dai, the Vietnamese long dress. The styles varied from daring new designs more like evening gowns to the century old classics. The fashion show was followed by Co La, an all women's Vietnamese folk group that uses traditinal instruments to play everything from Celtic to jazz music. They were incredible musicians.
After Co La I was going to leave but there was a fireworks show. Then at another part of the Citadel I stopped to watch a Cambodian dance troupe. This was unique performance as they were backed by Vietnamese traditional musicians. After leaving the Citadel I went back to the hotel. This was perhaps the highlight of the night. A French street band called S.N.O.B. (System for clearing the ears) was playing at a bar next to the hotel. The brass band was brilliant with their takes on everything from Jewish folk music to Led Zeppelin. I went back to the hotel after playing some air guitar and just kicked back and enjoyed the tuba!
Labels: Viet Nam and the West, Vietnamese culture
