The organizers of the third annual Coffee Festival in Buon Ma Thuot Town in Dak Lak Province will join hands with the 24th annual Duyen dang Vietnam (Charming Vietnam) concert.

Last week, the planners of the music and fashion show said they expect the events will help enliven the five-day coffee celebration, which wraps up on March 15.

Organizers from Thanh Nien Media Corp., Thanh Nien Newspaper and Trung Nguyen Co. Ltd announced that fashion shows and dance performances, would occur on March 13 and 14.  

Duong Thao - the show’s writer and co-director - said he planned to keep things small and simple, this year.

“We designed the show to express our simple love for this land,” said Thao.

The two-night festival will feature a short and sweet lineup of song and dance numbers performed on an outdoor 800-person amphitheater.

The stage has been already been outfitted with a mountainous backdrop, torches and water below.

Organizers of the event have already prepared a video homage to the late, great Highland singer, Y Moan, featuring unseen footage of his performances.   

Co-director and noted choreographer Tan Loc said that the audience can expect to settle back into the rich coffee aromas of Buon Ma Thuot and enjoy a lineup of traditional and modern performances.

Seventeen artists (mainly icons from surrounding ethnic minority groups) will perform in the event. Huong Lan, Y Jalin Ayun and Y Zack have all signed on for the show.

On the catwalk

Renowned designer Le Minh Khoa has created two exclusive collections for the event. Local top models Truong Thi May and Trang Nhung will join Miss Grand Slam Asia, Huong Giang, on the coffee bean-studded catwalk.

Nguyen Cong Khe, event organizer and chairman of Thanh Nien Media Corporation, said he believed the event would continue to be held for another twenty years, given Vietnam’s broad celebrity support.

“I must deeply appreciate the artists who have participated and worked closely to make the show happen,” Khe said. “Many of them have told me that they considered performing in Charming Vietnam to be the most exciting moment in their career. Others have shown an unconditional commitment with figurative payment to the event. The mere donation of their presence does a great deal for our Nguyen Thai Binh scholarship fund. Thousands of needy children have benefited from this show.”

Coffee time

Coffee lovers and highland enthusiasts will flood Buon Ma Thuot for the festival’s highly-anticipated opening ceremony.

On March 10, the show’s presenters descended a pair of giant staircases studded with thousands of coffee beans to kick off the event.

Two tons of coffees beans, hundreds of gongs, agricultural tools, mock-ups of native houses and two big waterfalls will be used to create the backdrop for the opening ceremony.

This will be followed by a street carnival that will fill the streets of the mountain town as it joyously inaugurates the world’s largest coffee museum.

More than ten thousand items will fill the museum’s displays, exhibiting features of the fabled beverage and the people who have come to depend on it for their livelihoods.

Le Quy Duong, director-in-chief of the opening and closing events said that the ceremonies will showcase a wide range of ethnic folk dances, instruments and traditional cultural rites.

During the closing night, the organizers will unveil a 1,500- square-meter map of the world made out of coffee beans. A pair of young Danish choreographers has planned a riveting dance for the evening, as well.

Unfortunately, the festival’s organizer has announced that football legend Pele could not attend the event, as expected.

Tickets for the coffee event are available from March 2 to 14 in Ho Chi Minh City and Buon Ma Thuot.