Opening of the 1st Central Highlands Ethnic Culture Festival

Attending the opening ceremony were: General To Lam, Politburo member, Minister of Public Security; Nguyen Van Hung, Party Central Committee member, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism; Y Thanh Ha Nie Kdam, Party Central Committee member, member of the National Assembly Standing Committee, Chairman of the National Assembly's Ethnic Council, and representatives of leaders of a number of central ministries and branches.

Minister To Lam spoke at the opening ceremony of the festival.

On the side of Kon Tum province, there were comrade Duong Van Trang, member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; comrade Le Ngoc Tan, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, representatives of the provincial departments, branches and sectors; representatives of the leaders of the 5 Central Highlands provinces, and more than 1,000 actors, singers, artists, artisans, mass actors, and a large number of ethnic minorities in Kon Tum province.

In his opening speech, Minister To Lam emphasized that our Party and State have always paid special attention to the comprehensive and sustainable development of the Central Highlands region. Since the renovation, many resolutions, directives and conclusions have been issued on this issue. On October 6, 2022, the 13th Politburo issued Resolution No. 23 on the direction of socio-economic development and ensuring national defense and security in the Central Highlands region until 2030, with a vision to 2045, which identified "Building an advanced Central Highlands culture, imbued with national cultural identity, unity in diversity, respecting different cultural values among ethnic groups, considering this as the driving force and foundation for the region's development and international integration".

Mass performance by police officers and soldiers at the opening ceremony.

Thoroughly implementing the policies of the Party and State, with the active support of the Central Committees, ministries and branches, the Party Committee and the Government together with the ethnic people of the Central Highlands have actively and effectively deployed many conservation and development solutions and achieved many achievements in the fields of culture, sports and tourism.

Up to now, the Central Highlands is still the place that preserves many unique and rich tangible and intangible cultural heritages, both historical and aesthetic, such as communal houses, long houses, lithophones, etc., festivals and folk literature treasures with epic poems, folk tales, fables, folk songs imbued with identity, including the legendary Dam San epic of the Ede people, festivals associated with the "Gong Cultural Space" recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The opening ceremony took place with the participation of thousands of actors, artists, famous singers and a large crowd of people.

Continuing to concretize the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress and the Cultural Development Strategy to 2030, the 1st Cultural, Sports and Tourism Festival of the Central Highlands ethnic groups will truly become a convergence and dissemination point, an opportunity for the Central Highlands ethnic groups to exchange, meet, and share experiences, contributing to promoting the image of the people, the majestic beauty and unique ethnic culture of the legendary Central Highlands to domestic and international friends, expanding opportunities to receive investment, attracting and developing tourism in the Central Highlands in general, and Kon Tum province in particular.

On behalf of the Party and State leaders, Minister To Lam hopes that local authorities and ethnic minorities will continue to pay attention to implementing the Party and State's policies, preserving and promoting cultural values, fine traditions, typical historical and cultural relics, world heritages, and special national relics. In addition, promoting the role of ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands in developing traditional culture, creating all conditions to improve the level of enjoyment and participation in cultural creativity of the people; harmoniously combining the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage values with sustainable economic and tourism development activities.

Bright cultural colors on the opening night.

Immediately after the ceremony was the festival with the theme "Great Central Highlands - Convergence of quintessence", the opening ceremony took place with many unique and attractive art programs, converging all the ethnic colors of the 5 Central Highlands provinces. The highlight was the 12-minute opening performance including the following performances: Festival drums Echoing the Central Highlands mountains and forests performed by 600 officers and soldiers of the People's Police Academy; trumpet music performance by the Festival drum art troupe of the People's Police Academy, the CAND Ceremonial Troupe - Mobile Police Command with 75 actors; the Quintessence of convergence performance performed by the Cultural and Artistic Center of Kon Tum province and the provinces of Lam Dong, Dak Nong, Dam San Theater, more than 100 students of Kon Tum Ethnic Minority High School and 500 artisans from the provinces. In addition, there were 10 unique art performances showing the harmony between tradition and contemporary, with the participation of artists from the Central Highlands provinces and other famous singers.

Cultural exchange of ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands.

According to the Organizing Committee, the 1st Central Highlands Ethnic Culture Festival in 2023 will take place for 3 days from November 29 to December 1, 2023, gathering about 800 artisans, artists, actors, and athletes from 5 Central Highlands provinces. At the Festival, there will be many unique and attractive cultural, sports and tourism activities such as: Performances, introductions of festival excerpts, traditional ethnic cultural rituals; Exhibition space to introduce and promote traditional cultural products of the locality; Exhibition and introduction of traditional local cuisine; Mass art festival and performance of costumes of ethnic groups in the Central Highlands; Exhibition "Cultural characteristics of ethnic groups in the Central Highlands in the cultural community of Vietnamese ethnic groups"; Exhibition of artistic photos about the unique cultural colors of ethnic groups in the Central Highlands region, accompanying the development of the country; compete in 5 sports including: tug of war, stick pushing, slingshot shooting, climbing greased poles and sack jumping; guide and support the organization of tours and tourist routes to promote and introduce the Festival and the beauty of the land and people of the Central Highlands...

Unique cultures of the ethnic groups in the Central Highlands are performed by artisans and mass actors.

The festival takes place with the aim of creating a space for cultural connection, introducing and promoting to the public the culture, gong space, and traditional farming culture of the ethnic groups in the Central Highlands. Thereby, it also contributes to strengthening the great solidarity between ethnic groups and localities, promoting tourism development, and comprehensive economic, cultural and social development of the Central Highlands region.

For Kon Tum province, the Festival is one of the solutions and tasks to contribute to promoting tourism development. The Festival will be a place to connect and converge unique traditional cultural features, aiming to promote tourism development links between localities across the country, promoting international integration. Thereby, creating conditions to strongly attract investment resources for tourism development, enhancing the position and image of the country, Vietnamese people in general and Kon Tum province in particular.

Source