Sea festival to heat up central resort city

The biennial Nha Trang Sea Festival will heat up the summer days in central Vietnam’s seaside resort city of Nha Trang from June 6 to 12.

The fourth Nha Trang Sea Festival will include 67 cultural, sport and tourism activities, Khanh Hoa Province People’s Committee Deputy Chairman Le Xuan Than announced on April 25.

The week-long festival, themed “Nha Trang – Civilization and Friendliness,” will include a Cau Ngu (fish worshipping) ceremony, music and dance performances by people from the Cham ethnic minority, street parades, stunt kite flying, French films, a calligraphy exhibition, a sand sculpture contest, a metal work exhibition and a number of water sports competitions.

A national conference on urban planning, a beach football tournament, an international book fair and a joint Vietnam-South Korea concert will also feature in the festival.

The provincial People’s Committee, organizer of the event, is also aiming to break six national records, including the biggest Vespa motor scooter parade, the largest folk orchestra in Vietnam, the longest piece of embroidery work and the largest pho (noodle soup) bowl, which will be able to hold 700 times more soup than an average bowl.

The free events will be held at a number of local tourist attractions, Vietnam News Agency reported.

The organizers hope this year’s Nha Trang Sea Festival will boost tourist numbers to the seaside city during the global economic downturn. The previous festival in 2007 attracted about 250,000 visitors to the city.

The tropical paradise of Nha Trang is famous for its pristine beaches, luxury seaside resorts and scuba diving sites.