Artists at a meeting introducing the Việt Nam Puppetry Festival to be held on December 28-29 in HCM City. — VNS Photo Thu Ngân

HCM CITY — The second puppetry festival will take place on HCM City’s Nguyễn Huệ Pedestrian Street on December 28-29, with the aim of creating a cultural exchange site for local residents on the occasion of the New Year and honouring traditional Vietnamese puppertry art.

The festival, organised following the success of the first festival last year, is expected to attract tens of thousands of people living in HCM City and neighbouring provinces.

Themed Green Dream, it will gather artists from puppetry theatres from all over the country who will perform shows on two nights.

A variety of activities are expected to bring the art of puppetry closer to the general public and foreign tourists, contributing to preserving and promoting the cultural value of the unique traditional art form.

The spotlight of the event will be a march at nights. Joining the march will be puppeteers from puppetry theatres who will walk along the Pedestrian Street with colourful traditional puppetry customes.

Other activities include an exhibition displaying giant puppetry characters. Puppetry characters from every region in the country, including Rối Lùn (Short Puppetry), Rối Que (Stick Puppetry) and Rối Dây (String Puppetry), will also be displayed.

Puppetry artworks as well as instruments used during performances will be exhibited. Visitors will be able to learn about Vietnamese puppetry and have a chance to talk to artists as well as perform or make puppets.

During the two main days of the event, many performances will be organised on the main stage and other additional stages set up along Nguyễn Huệ Pedestrian Street.

The event is organised by the Sirenis Việt Company under the supervision and guidance of the HCM City Department of Culture and Sports, with the participation of many theatres in the country.

The Việt Nam Puppetry Festival aims to offer a combination of different types of puppetry and other art forms to the public and tourists. — VNS