Bùi Hoài Sơn.

Festivals are one of the important intangible cultural heritages of Việt Nam. It is necessary to preserve and develop festivals to become a product contributing to cultural development. 

Hà Nội Mới Cuối Tuần (Weekend New Hà Nội) reporter Linh Tâm spoke with Bùi Hoài Sơn, a permanent member of the National Assembly's Committee of Culture and Education, about festival preservation and development. 

What is the role of festivals in cultural development?

Festivals are a product of the tourism sector and are among the 12 cultural industries. It plays an important role in cultural development.

The spring festival will stimulate tourism because people want to travel to spiritual tourism destinations at the beginning of the year, praying for good things. 

When the people come to festivals they will pray and also buy goods and local specialties. Tourism services will help the local community to develop a social economy and make them proud of their cultural tradition. 

It proves that we can get benefits from festivals. 

What can the localities do to make good use of festivals?

First of all, we must be fully aware of the role of festivals in economic, cultural and social development, and the benefits brought by festivals. Of course, festivals need to be organised well. Then we will protect and bring festival values into the play while preventing festivals from being commercialised. 

We have to see festivals as a cultural product to popularise them. Take for example, the traditional festival has values that tell more about the local culture. To make festivals attractive, we have to understand festival values and their characteristics to organise them well and make them suitable in the fourth industrial revolution. 

One of the most important things is how well festivals are organised to attract visitors and make them trust festival organisers. 

Plus, the localities and all the social sectors need to join hands in festival organisation, including food security, fire prevention and health care service in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Then last but not least, the festival organisation board should not only focus on the ceremony but also pay attention to promoting relevant activities such as fair organisation, introducing local specialties, tourism services and others. 

What about coordination between local authorities and the community, to turn festivals into a cultural product?

As I mentioned above, we have to define that festivals belongs to the community. The community is the key factor to preserving and developing festivals. 

However, the local authority, the relevant bodies and culture researchers play an important role in helping the community to have profound knowledge about their cultural values. 

In the fourth revolution, participation of the local authority in festival preservation and popularising is necessary. It will help the community to be capable of heritage including festival preservation and development. And I think that the attention and help from the authorities must be based on the community's agreement. 

One more thing, the festival is one of the main factors to develop cultural tourism. To attract tourists, festivals have to be unique and have their typical characteristics. 

What do you think about new festivals which have appeared currently? Will they contribute to the cultural industry? 

The new festivals are cultural products helping us to popularise our country and speed up the social, economic and cultural development of the localities. 

The event organisation is very important to the cultural industry. In Việt Nam, some of the events become popular such as Đà Nẵng Firework Festival; Hạ Long Carnaval and Huế Festival. The localities benefit from these events becoming popular. 

What is your advice for festivals in Hà Nội to become a cultural product?

Festivals are very important to Hà Nội because it proves the rich history of the city and it is a creative city. The tradition and festival as well are good materials for Hà Nội to be creative. 

That is why we need to pay attention to festival preservation and development. All the relevant factors such as food, fashion, and arts and craft should be honoured at the festivals and they will have chances to grow. - VNS