Hanoi (VNA) - The entertainment industry in the year 2016 offered themasses a wide selection with an increasing number of cultural activities, artsprogrammes, and reality television shows, contributing to satisfying theincreasing demand for entertainment of the Vietnamese and updating them on theworld’s arts trends through performances of many world-renowned guest artists,reported Nhan dan newspaper.

Assortedout-door activities

Thisyear witnessed the increase in both quality and quantity of outdoor communitycultural events. Prominent among them were the Hanoi Ao Dai (traditionalVietnamese long dress) Festival, the Ho Chi Minh City Ao Dai Festival, HueFestival and Hanoi Book Fair.

Thefirst-ever Hanoi Ao Dai festival, featuring fashion shows of Ao Dai, a seminaron preserving and promoting the value of the national costume, a children'spainting contest on Ao Dai, among others, attracted over 30,000 visitors duringits three-day organisation. The ninth Hue Festival, coinciding with longLiberation Day-May Day holidays, entertained visitors with nearly 50 arts andentertainment activities. The 2016 Hanoi Book Fair in October at the Thang LongImperial Citadel attracted nearly 70 domestic and foreign publishers, whoinstalled 170 booths at the event, introducing their latest publications.

Theyear 2016 also saw the greater care attached to cultural and entertainmentspaces by local authorities in major cities across the country. Since earlySeptember, a pedestrian space in the vicinity of Hoan Kiem Lake opened forpublic from 7 PM on Friday to midnight Sunday. Visitors to the space areoffered a number of traditional arts programmes, such as chau van (spiritualsinging), cheo (traditional opera), Quan Ho (love duet singing), andcontemporary arts performances as well as folk games. The Hanoi authoritiesalso piloted a new regulation allowing restaurants and bars in Hoan Kiemdistrict to open until 2am on the last three days of each week instead ofmidnight as before September 1, in order the meet the increasing demand forentertainment of visitors and locals.

InHo Chi Minh City, since it was inaugurated in January, Nguyen Van Binh BookStreet has become a cultural rendezvous for booklovers while contributing tocultivating the reading habit in society. The book street also set a successfulexample for the December 19 Book street in Hanoi, which is scheduled to open inApril this year.

Musicalparties introduced a line-up of international artists

Aseries of high-quality arts feasts were organised in 2016, contributing toraising the public’s aesthetic reception ability. They included a series ofarts programmes at Hanoi Opera House, which was launched in August by theMinistry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The project featured the ‘AutumnSymphony’ by Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra, ‘Biet Doi Bao Den’ (BlackPanther Squad) play by Vietnam National Drama Theatre, extracts from cheo(traditional opera) plays by Vietnam Cheo Theatre, and the ‘Dieu Con Mai’(Forever) concert.

Internationalfestivals in 2016 attracted many international artists from around the world.The International Experimental Theatre Festival in Hanoi in November 12-19introduced 39 plays put on by eight Vietnamese troupes and eight foreigntroupes.

Aline-up of more than 100 international singers, dancers and artists shared thestage with their Vietnamese colleagues to storm the capital city of Hanoi atthe Moon Soon Festival 2016 on October 21-22. This year’s festival, to whichlegendary German rock band Scorpion was invited, provided an opportunity forVietnamese music lovers to enjoy its diversity of musical styles.

Underthe theme “Music – Convergence and Pervasion”, the second Asia-Europe MusicFestival in October left good impressions with special concerts, symphonies,chamber music, chorus, opera, and ballet with the participation of nearly 200artists and musicians from 30 countries and territories.

Inaddition, the 2016 SEA Pride music festival in June and the 2016 European MusicFestival 2016 (EMF 2016) in November treated Vietnamese audiences to a musicalparty of Indie, Pop, Rock and EDM while showcasing the regions’ musicaldiversity.

Manyworld musical figures also chose Vietnam as a destination for theirperformances in 2016, including German rock band Scorpion, disco band Boney M,Thomas Anders of Modern Talking pop band, Chris Norman - former lead singer ofthe Smokie band, and the legendary Danish band Michael Learns to Rock.

Theabove programmes once again proved that the arts and music in particular hasserved as a friendly ambassador to link Vietnam and international friends asthey created dialogues between different cultures and connected peoples fromdifferent countries.

Therise of reality television series and game shows

Realitytelevision series and game shows saw an outbreak in number and dominated theentertainment sector in 2016. Touching upon almost aspects of daily life, theshows have become most favourite choice of a majority of TV viewers.

Inthe popular music genre, there are programmes such as The Voice, Vietnam Idol,and Sing My Song, while those who love slow-tempo music can tune into Solo withBolero and Bolero Star. Such programmes as Strictly Come Dancing and So YouThink You Can Dance can entertain dancing lovers, while those interested infashion and beauty are offered Miss Vietnam, Vietnam Next Top Model, and TheFace modelling contest.

However,the programmes faced the common shortcomings regarding aesthetic values as manyorganisers staged scandals, script leaks, and shocking statements in order toraise its competition and draw viewers’ curiosity, thus maximising theirprofits.

Tosum up, the entertainment sector in 2016 was presented in a multicolouredpicture, in which the bright colours were mostly featured, representing anumber of innovations. Many policies and regulations have been issued, bringingabout initial results in managing entertainment activities. In 2017, it ishoped the sector will arrange more cheerful cultural programmes, meeting theincreasing demand of the masses.-VNA