Thang Long-Hanoi video clip contest launched; Hue city to host national hip-hop contest; Fund, music show helps earthquake Haitian victims; Belgian artists to join Hue Festival

The Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism on February 4 launched a video clip contest on the subject of Thang Long-Hanoi to celebrate the upcoming millennium anniversary.

The contestants must show at least three works within a limit of nine minutes, using any medium–such as video cameras, mobile phones or still cameras–to depict Hanoians and their daily lives in modern times.

The entries selected from the primary examination will be posted on the official website of the festival, www.thanglonghanoi.gov.vn to be judged by the public.

The contest winner will receive VND 20 million. There will also be two second prizes, each worth VND 10 million.

Those wishing to enter should send their work to the Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism from March 10-15. The award-granting ceremony is scheduled to take place in July.

Hue to host national hip-hop contest

A hip-hop contest entitled ‘Urban Kingz 2’ will be held in two days, starting this Saturday at Celadon Hotel in Hue city.

The contest will see nearly 50 hip-hop crews from 15 cities and provinces in the country throw-down through five events featuring breaking, breaking team battle, new style battle, popping battle and power move battle.

The winning team will represent Vietnam at an international hip-hop contest scheduled to take place in the same central City in October.

Fund, music show helps earthquake Haitian victims

The Ba Ria-Vung Tau-based private charitable fund Le An has sent VND100 million as donations to people in Haiti which was recently devastated by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake.

In their own move, artists from various countries such as Britain, Canada , New Zealand , and the US , will perform in Hanoi on February 4 to raise funds for these victims.

Joining with the global efforts to help Haitian victims, last month, the Vietnam Red Cross (VRC) sent US$20,000 in initial assistance to Haitian victims, while the Vietnamese government donated US$50,000.

According to Haitian President Rene Preval, nearly 170,000 people had died in the earthquake that hit his country on January 12.

Belgian artists to join Hue Festival

Three art troupes from Belgium will take part in the 2010 Hue Festival in the central province of Thua Thien Hue from June 5-13.

Wallonie-Bruxelles delegation includes the “Tof Theatre” puppetry troupe, the “Baladeu’x” circus and Vietnamese Belgian comedian Michelle Nguyen.

During the Hue Festival, the troupe will lead a procession on the street with giant puppets and stage a play titled “The return”. The “Baladeu’x” will present a visual and non-verbal art work while Michelle Nguyen will perform a play which is inspired from her homeland return in 2003.

After the festival, the art troupes will give free performances in some northern provinces to promote tourism and sustainable development of Vietnamese villages.

PV