UK arts director trains local in organising festivals

About 25 art promoters and festival organisers from around the nation will attend the first training workshop on festival management in Vietnam from March 17-20. This activity is part of a three-year capacity-building programme on festival management launched by the British Council in Hanoi in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnam.
As well as helping to promote the arts, the British Council will also put British festival organisers in touch with their Vietnamese counterparts.
The first training workshop will be held by UK festival director Nick Dodds.
Arts promoters and festival organisers from Hanoi, HCM City, Quang Ninh, Khanh Hoa, Hue and Binh Thuan will be in attendance.
The programme, which is part of the British Council’s global project entitled “New Work New Audience”, will include a series of training workshops on arts festival organisation led by UK directors and a series of wraparound events to showcase UK and Vietnamese arts to audience in the two countries.
“The British Council hopes through this project, festival organisers will be better able to contribute to the development of the country’s cultural infrastructure,” said Simon Beardow, deputy director of the British Council Vietnam.
Nick Dodds was chief executive of the Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival from 200 to 2008, where he was responsible for artistic and commercial operations.
Dodds oversaw the relaunch in 2002 of the Brighton Festival Fringe- England’s largest arts festival. He was also responsible for the capital refurbishment of the Brighton Dome and Museum.
Dodds was formerly chairman of the British Arts Festival Associations and the International Festival and Events Association- Europe.
Dodds has been organizing arts events for nearly 30 years.
“I have been waiting for this kind of event for a long time,” said Huynh Tien Dat, deputy director of the Hue Festival Centre.
“Vietnam has no school or centre offering training in festival organization. I attended a course for cultural officers but it was a general workshop and did not focus on festival organization,” Dat said.
The programme will be held every three months in different locations. The next workshop is scheduled to be held in Hue in June..