The Hue Festival 2020, a big cultural event of the central province of Thua Thien-Hue, will be rescheduled due to complex developments of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

A dancing performance at the closing ceremony of the Hue Festival 2018 (Photo: VNA)

Festival organisers said on February 18 that the Standing Board of the provincial Party Committee agreed on the delay of the biennial festival, initially slated for April 1-6.

In its rescheduling proposal, the organising board said it would be inappropriate for the 11th edition of the Hue Festival to take place amid the COVID-19 epidemic, highlighting the need to protect local people and visitors’ health.

If the disease is put under control soon, the event will be held on the National Day (September 2) holiday this year. Meanwhile, it will be postponed until 2021 to take place at the same time with the Hue Traditional Craft Festival in case the epidemic remains complicated, the organising board added.

The provincial People’s Committee will decide the date of the festival.

The Hue Festival 2018 was held with the theme: ‘Cultural Heritage with Integration and Development: Hue - One Destination, Five World Heritages’.

It attracted the participation of nearly 1,400 artists and professional actors including 388 from 24 international art troupes and nearly 1,000 from across the country.

Thousands of amateur artists also took part in the event, which welcomed more than 1.2 million visitors.

(Source: VNA)