SALT PRODUCTS: The salt industry and values of Vietnamese salt production will be featured during the three-day Vietnamese Salt Craft Festival in Bạc Liêu Province from March 6-8. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Sử

BẠC LIÊU — The Vietnamese Salt Craft Festival 2025 is slated to open in the Mekong Delta City of Bạc Liêu from March 6-8.

With its theme “Enhancing the Value of Vietnamese Salt in Bạc Liêu Province”, the festival aims to honour, preserve and develop the salt industry, raising the value of Vietnamese salt production overall, and particularly Bạc Liêu salt.

The organisers – the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in collaboration with the People’s Committee of Bạc Liêu Province – are working to expand the festival and its activities nationwide.

According to the provincial People’s Committee Chairman Phạm Văn Thiều, the Salt Craft Festival this year will be a platform for exchanging experiences and knowledge in the production, processing and trading of salt products and other local speciality products across provinces.

“We hope the festival will promote local tourism and provide farmers new opportunities to develop their businesses,” he said.

The festival will include different cultural and arts programmes featuring performers from art troupes of Bạc Liêu and other provinces in the region.

Exhibitions, forums and seminars focusing on production, business and entrepreneurship within the salt industry will be highlighted.

Additionally, the festival will introduce the historical, cultural and heritage value of the salt industry in Bạc Liêu and participating provinces.

CULTURAL VALUES: The Vietnamese Salt Craft Festival is slated to open in the Mekong River Delta City of Bạc Liêu from March 6-8. Traditional music, dances and songs in praise of the culture and lifestyle of Bạc Liêu will be featured at the event. — Photo courtesy of Bạc Liêu Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

The festival’s highlighted events will include đờn ca tài tử (a traditional music genre of the South) performances by talented artists from Bạc Liêu and other southern provinces and cities.

Đờn ca tài tử, originated in southern Việt Nam around 100 years ago, is often performed during festivals and special occasions, such as weddings and death anniversaries in Mekong Delta provinces, such as Cần Thơ, Vĩnh Long, Cà Mau and Bạc Liêu.

It was recognised as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2013.

The most popular song of đờn ca tài tử is Dạ Cổ Hoài Lang (Night Drumbeats Cause Longing for Absent Husband) written in 1919 by well-known composer Cao Văn Lầu, a native of Bạc Liêu.

The song tells of the love, anguish and pride of a young woman watching her husband fight for the country.

Bạc Liêu Province has 56km of coastline, thousands of hectares of mangrove forests, fruit orchards, and fields for growing rice and other crops that are conducive for developing tourism products.

With its average annual growth of 15 per cent in tourist numbers in recent years, the province attracted 4.9 million visitors last year and generated revenue of VNĐ3.9 trillion (US$160 million). — VNS