Thang Long - Hanoi Festival opens with impressive AR-enhanced heritage performance
VOV.VN - The second Thang Long - Hanoi Festival opened on the evening of September 11 at the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long, featuring a three-act live-action performance that integrated augmented reality (AR) technology to present traditional heritage through contemporary artistic language.
The 90-minute opening ceremony, themed "Heritage Flow," kicked off a ten-day series of cultural and tourism activities running through September 20 across multiple heritage and creative spaces throughout the capital.
Directed by Pham Hoang Giang, the performance moved through three distinct chapters, tracing Hanoi's historical cultural layers and expanding into a cross-cultural dialogue uniting regional Vietnamese heritage with international art forms.
The opening chapter, "Awakening Heritage - Lighting the Flame of Heritage," utilized AR technology to recreate the spatial architecture of the Citadel's Doan Mon gate.
The second chapter, "Heritage Crossroads," highlighted Hanoi's historic craft quarters, the Temple of Literature (Van Mieu - Quoc Tu Giam), urban elegance, and northern folk melodies. The final chapter, "Multicolor Interference," gathered regional troupes from Ho Chi Minh City, Hue, Dien Bien, and Dak Lak, alongside international artists from South Korea, Japan, and India, concluding with a choral performance titled "Hanoi Welcomes the World."
The stage setup combined large LED screens, projection mapping, laser lighting, and AR to extend the performance space while preserving the structural integrity and original landscape of the UNESCO World Heritage site.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Vice Chairwoman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Vu Thu Ha stressed the need to balance heritage preservation with modern development, aiming to transform cultural assets into resources for the capital's cultural industries and creative economy.
The festival features more than 20 activities involving over 3,000 artists and performers, alongside more than 100 traditional artisans and heritage practitioners. Events are hosted at key historical landmarks, including the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long, the Temple of Literature, the Hanoi Museum, the Bat Trang ceramic village, and the Hoan Kiem Lake pedestrian zone.
Thang Long Puppet Theatre brings Hanoi’s cultural identity to Japan
VOV.VN - The Thang Long Puppet Theatre will perform at the 18th Vietnam Festival in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park from May 28 to June 2, 2026, with a 21-member delegation led by Nguyen Thi Mai Huong, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports.
