Southern Food Festival to take place at Dam Sen Park

The eighth Southern Food Festival will take place at Dam Sen Cultural Park in HCMC’s District 11 from May 31 to June 3, 2018 as part of activities to celebrate the International Children’s Day.
This year’s event is jointly organized by the HCMC Department of Tourism, the HCMC Tourism Association and Phu Tho Tourist Service Co., which is a subsidiary of Saigontourist.
The festival will feature 60 booths from many cities and provinces including Hue, Quang Nam, Vung Tau, Dong Nai, Binh Thuan, Ninh Thuan, Tay Ninh, Ben Tre, Long An, Tien Giang and some provinces from the Central Highlands. Most of the dishes at the Southern Food Festival are children’s favorites.
The booths are clustered into different zones like the “Old Saigon” zone introducing Saigon’s specialties plus a sweet corner presenting a wide range of cakes and sweet soup made by Binh Quoi Tourist Village.
There will be special corners selling dishes made from crocodile meat as well as crocodile leather products, and A Ma Cong medicine. Top retailers like Coopmart and Satrafood together with the Vietnam High-Quality Products Club, Vina Vietgap and especially Dam Sen’s hydroponic vegetable garden will introduce visitors to a variety of clean and organic vegetables.
In addition, guests will be invited to visit the local market zone created by the Dam Sen zoo landscape team that imitates a livestock market, a farm produce zone and a traditional craft zone making and selling brocade and sedge mat.
Traditional performances like don ca tai tu (traditional music of southern Viet Nam) and ho (chanty) on river, and cong chieng (gongs)-drum-T'rung (traditional bamboo xylophone) show and wine offering dance performed by an art troop of E De ethnic minority people from Dak Lak Province will bring more joys to the festival.
Ticket price is VND250,000 per person, including admission to the park and a food voucher worth VND250,000. In addition, guests will be entitled to a 50% discount for Dam Sen Cultural Park’s packages.
For one food ticket purchased before 4 p.m. on May 30, guests will receive a ticket to go for a sightseeing at Dam Sen Cultural Park. Tickets are sold by Dam Sen Cultural Park and Phu Tho Tourist Service Co.
Covering 32 hectares, Dam Sen is the largest leisure park not only in HCMC but also across Viet Nam.
It is home to more than 100 species of animal including farm-raised, wild and endangered animals like elephant, anaconda, crocodile, ostrich and orangutan, as well as diverse plant species such as bonsai, orchid and cactus.
The park also provides visitors with more than 50 theme games, including both relaxing and thrilling games.
It has hosted many exciting cultural programs like Guinness World Records events, Halloween, Tet (Lunar New Year) celebration, Mid-autumn festival, teachers’ day and journalists’ day.
Dam Sen is also a perfect destination for food lovers, running a chain of restaurants, including Huong Trang, Huong Sen and Dam Sen food village, serving a variety of dishes..