Concerns expand about festival management

Fundamentally, festivals are events that cost the Government a lot of money, but many are organized in ways that harm Vietnamese culture and the value of folk festivals. The problem lies with festival managers.
This outspoken and fierce criticism by Dr. Le Thi Minh Ly, vice chief of the Heritage Department, is among many opinions raised at a Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s conference to review its festival management in Vietnam on June 15.
“Festivals are organized rampantly and in wasteful forms. Many are commercialized and altered. The numbers of guests are more than the visitors. Some festivals even cause a negative environmental impact or order-security issues,” listed Nguyen Dao Toan, chief of the Grassroots Culture Department, who briefed discussants on typical festival problems.
“Each village, each commune can organize its own festival. All locations want to upgrade their festivals from commune to district, from district to provincial, from provincial to national and from national to international level. The people may feel that our country has festivals all year round, every day!” complained Prof. Nguyen Van Huy.
According to the Grassroots Culture Department’s statistics, Vietnam has 7966 festivals, including 7039 folk festivals, 332 historical festivals, 544 religious festivals and ten festivals imported into Vietnam from other countries. In addition, there are other kinds of festivals listed as “others”, including cultural, sports, tourism, trade, firework, fruit, beer, seafood, etc.
Officials agreed that managers should concentrate on the outstanding and most crowded festivals in Vietnam, which also receive the most complaints, including Ba Chua Kho Temple Festival, Tran Temple Festival, Huong Pagoda Festival, Thay Pagoda Festival, Phu Giay Festival, Yen Tu Festival, Ha Noi Flower Festival and Ba Chua Xu Temple Festival.
Grassroots Culture Department Chief Nguyen Van Huy maintained that management agencies and the public need to help people understand that they are contributing to alterations in the nature of festivals.
Huy explained that Ba Chua Kho (Queen of Stocks) is remembered as a woman who held military provision warehouses for the king, not a money lender. People would have not flocked in the past to Ba Chua Kho Temple in Bac Ninh province in the early and late parts of the year to borrow and pay her money.
Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Chief Inspector Vu Xuan Thanh admitted that problems mainly emerge at big festivals, which are more crowded and offer the potential for residents to earn high profits from providing services.
Prof. Nguyen Van Huy and Dr. Le Thi Minh Ly agreed that all recent challenges have not occurred at village festivals, where the people are still the key players, but rather at national or modern festivals, which are closely linked to funding, not culture.
Dr. Ly objected to restoring festivals that can’t exist in the modern world or have been lost for a long time.
Prof. Huy cited that these festivals need great funding and must attract the public and media, but they will die very soon without financial backing because they don’t have any real cultural space and relationship to life.