Nha Trang – Call of the Sea

Every other year, ending in an odd number, a festival is held in the coastal city of Nha Trang , one of the 30-member Club of the Most Beautiful Bays in the World. Compared with three previous festivals, Nha Trang Sea Festival 2009 was of a larger scale and included more activities, which attracted a great number of local people as well as visitors.

Every other year, ending in an odd number, a festival is held in the coastal city of Nha Trang , one of the 30-member Club of the Most Beautiful Bays in the World. Compared with three previous festivals, Nha Trang Sea Festival 2009 was of a larger scale and included more activities, which attracted a great number of local people as well as visitors. The artistic programme in the opening ceremony of the festival showed a brilliant picture of the sea with the landscape of a peaceful area, the beauty of life and work of the residents in the coastal area, and parades of legends. It also introduced the typical cultural and artistic features of the ethnic groups, the tourism potential of the islands and the economic strong points of Nha Trang City in Khanh Hoa Province. Thanking the sponsors at the opening ceremony of Nha Trang Sea Festival 2009.. Artistic performances with the participation of hundreds of artists. Walking on stilts in the street parade. Beautiful at the street parade. The street parade attracts many participants. An artistic performance on the closing night. Tourists join in drawing the record painting. The biggest ever pot of Pho in Vietnam. The largest traditional Vietnamese orchestra.   The street parade themed “Nha Trang – Call of the Sea” was a great event reflecting the mingling of the traditional and modern cultures and the typical features of Nha Trang - home to 32 ethnic groups. A car of flowers in the shape of a ship with a roof of the coastal village’s communal house, accompanied by hundreds of actors and actresses in traditional costumes along with jubilant drumbeats and singing showed the typical culture of a coastal area. In the performance “Echo from jungle”, young men and women from the Rac Lay ethnic group (a community living in southern Khanh Hoa Province) danced around a car, which carried a Neu tree and 10 jars of Can wine, and invited visitors to drink the wine and dance to the sound of Rac Lay gongs. A group of flower cars of the Cham ethnic people reproduced the Goddess Ponagar Tower, a relic of the typical Cham architecture worshipping Thien Y A Na (Mother of the area who taught people to grow rice), to the sound of Paranung drums and ancient Cham dances. Ending the parade was a flower car entitled “Goddess of Ocean” which was designed with the effect of light and stunning decorative lights in a crystal colour by the Club of the Most Beautiful Bays in the World. Standing on the car, Miss World 2004 Maria Julia Mantilla Garcia (from Peru) and Miss World 2008 Ksenia Sukhinova (from Russia) waved to spectators. Apart from the parade, the unique cultures of the fishing people were also reproduced via the Cau Ngu festival, the whale-worshipping ritual and the ceremony to pray for a peaceful country, happy people, a calm sea and a good catch of fish and shrimp. Nha Trang Sea Festival 2009 was successful with many charity activities full of humanity. The artistic programme entitled “RAAS – Compassionate Words” was a large romantic and lively programme with songs about the homeland and school age. It linked benevolent hearts and collected nearly 10.5 billion VND for the “Vu A Dinh scholarship fund” established by Ho Chi Minh Youth Union’s Central Executive Committee for poor ethnic pupils and to help students overcome difficulties and assist them in their studies.  The French culture and the exchange of activities between Vietnamese and French people left a deep impression on the festival participants. Members of the association “Soleils des Francophonies”, a non-governmental organization, together with the authorities of Morbihan Province in France participated in the activities to introduce French cultural values and the teaching of the French language at schools in Khanh Hoa Province. Pierrik Nevannen, Vice Chairman of Morbihan Provincial People’ Council said that this year’s festival had been organized solemnly with effective collaboration between the two provinces. For the next festival Morbihan Province would try to make more contributions. President of the association “Soleils des Francophonies”, Simon Jean Claud who had participated in the previous festivals in Nha Trang said that the country of Vietnam and its people always left a fine impression on him. In recent years, tourism in Nha Trang-Khanh Hoa Province has speeded up. In 2008, nearly 1,6 million visitors were welcomed, who brought in more than 1,357 billion VND in revenues, contributing to the Province’s economy. Nguyen Huu Bai, Deputy Director of Khanh Hoa Cultural-Sports Department said that with nearly 70 attractive cultural, sports and tourist activities, Nha Trang Sea Festival 2009 will expand its co-operation and development relations in Nha Trang, a land of aloe wood, aloe and swallow’s nests, helping develop the Province’s tourism sector into a key economy, over 9% to the Province’s GDP. At Nha Trang Sea Festival 2009, eight Vietnamese records were set, including the biggest Pho(rice noodle) pot that can serve 700 people; the longest flower-decorated parade car (22.5m); the biggest dragon made of scrap metal (7m long and weighing over 5 tonnes); the largest traditional orchestra (189 members); the largest number of people taking part in a group exercise (over 5,000 people); the largest set of embroidered paintings (made by 96 artisans working for 11,250 consecutive days); the longest oil painting about environmental protection (100m long, 1.4m high); and the largest collection of snail shells (5,000 shells of 300 species).