VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnamese and foreign musicians will perform in a music and song festival at HCM City’s RMIT International University Viet Nam this week to raise funds for the disabled and poor.

American artist Curtis King and his partner perform Take My Hand, a song for Agent Orange victims, at a recent charity concert in HCM City.

The concert is organised by Loreto Viet Nam-Australia, a non-governmental organisation, which offers charity programmes for more than 6,000 children.

Loreto Fest 2008 will include Australian and American performers Mojo Webb, Curtis King, and the rock band Regurgitator, among others.

Nearly 2,000 people will attend the event, which will be devoted mostly to pop, rock, R&B and jazz.

Regurgitator’s soloist and leader, Quan Yeomans, and guitarist Ben Ely, drummer Peter Kostic and keyboarder Seja Volgul, play music that is popular among young Australians.

Their latest albums, Mushash! and Love and Paranoia, which incorporate electronic music, has been warmly received.

Other rockers, including Mojo Webb from Brisbane, will perform on guitar, harmonica, saxophone and drums.

“We’re here to encourage people to pay more attention to underprivileged children,” said Curtis King, who has lived in Viet Nam for 10 years.

Curtis, who plays guitar, and his Vietnamese partners will sing his composition, Take My Hand, which expresses hope for the victims of Agent Orange in Viet Nam.

Curtis’s song, recorded in both English and Vietnamese, has reached the No16 spot on Viet Nam’s first-ever Top 40 Countdown on XoneFM, a radio music programme that airs in 64 cities and provinces around the country.

They will also perform With or Without You, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, If You Wanna Dance To Rock and Roll Music and I Feel Good.

Several other local young singers and pop bands, including pop star Ho Ngoc Ha and Phuong Vi, will participate in the concert.

The show will take place at 8pm tonight at the Viet Nam RMIT University’s campus in Nguyen Van Linh Street, Phu My Hung, District 7.

Organisers said Loreto Fest last year raised more than US$50,000.

(Source: VNS)