The Imperial City sparkles at night in an art show

When the Palace Lights Up

Every time the Hue Monuments Conservation Center organizes art programs at night, the Hue Imperial City becomes overloaded with tens of thousands of people coming to enjoy. In the art programs "Hue's Sounds", the 3D light projection event "Hue by Light", Hue Festival..., the ancient space becomes a magical stage of light, art and memories. Ngo Mon Gate and Thai Hoa Palace yard become the center of attraction, where the audience immerses themselves in a unique cultural space, with light performances combined with royal music .

With the art programs, the Hue Monuments Conservation Center has elaborately staged. People and tourists can enjoy unique art programs, blending traditional royal music with contemporary art, combining to recreate the rituals of the Nguyen Dynasty. These programs show the potential to exploit the Royal Palace space at night in a creative way, contributing to promoting and increasing the attractiveness of the Imperial City.

Among the thousands of spectators, there were many tourists from all over the country and even foreign tourists who were excited and joined in the vibrant atmosphere of the program. Mr. Hoang Thanh Long, a tourist from Ho Chi Minh City, shared: “I have visited the Imperial City during the day, but the first time I came here at night, I saw that the space of the Royal Palace was completely different. The solemn citadels became magical and magnificent!”

For Mr. Andrew Philips, a British tourist staying in Hue, experiencing the night at the Royal Palace was one of the reasons why he decided to stay in the ancient capital. He said: “The combination of heritage and modern art is really attractive. I think Hue should organize programs like this more often. It makes Hue culture more vibrant and more accessible to foreign tourists.”

Remove bottlenecks

Despite the potential advantages, the story of opening the Imperial City at night still faces many obstacles. Not because of lack of ideas or determination, but because of “many issues that need to be prepared and synchronized”, as shared by Mr. Hoang Viet Trung, Director of the Hue Monuments Conservation Center.

Hue is lacking tourism products and night experience services that are attractive enough to retain visitors and encourage them to spend. To have a show or service that is attractive enough, it is necessary to invest in facilities, lighting, technical logistics equipment, and especially human resources. Meanwhile, the workload of the Center's staff during the day is already very large.

“This is a problem we are very concerned about. The Center has a theater, a team of artists and a lot of experience in organizing events, but for the program to “live” sustainably, it must bring visitors a truly unique and attractive experience based on exploiting historical values. Previously, the events organized by the Center were often free, so the audience was large. But to maintain it regularly and become an economic product, many conditions must go along with it,” said Mr. Trung.

Not only stopping at the organizational problem, the exploitation of the Imperial Citadel at night is also related to legal factors and public asset management mechanisms. The Imperial Citadel is a world cultural heritage, and exploitation and promotion activities in the world cultural heritage space are affected by many regulations and mechanisms. All activities must ensure the principle of "both preservation and promotion", in which the boundary between these two goals is quite fragile. This is also a problem that is often mentioned in heritage forums nationwide.

Mr. Trung explained: “Shows in many other destinations are usually performed by businesses. They have ticketing systems, tours, routes, and performance spaces that are not constrained by heritage regulations, but Hue is different. The Center also wants to provide unique experience services for tourists. Previously, the Center organized Royal Night programs, but they were not sustainable because there was no stable source of customers, and the way of doing things was still administrative.”

Currently, the Hue Monuments Conservation Center is trying to find partners with the capacity to organize socialized night tourism products. The goal is to build shows and art performances that can be maintained regularly and for a long time. Mr. Trung said: “From the perspective of heritage economics, the product must be good, attractive, included in tours, routes and have regular ticket sales to survive. To organize sustainable shows, there must be a partner with enough capacity and experience, a customer system, a ticket sales system, communications... In particular, that partner must have a source of potential customers. We are trying to clear the bottlenecks as well as promote resources.”

Once the story of opening the Imperial City at night is satisfactorily resolved, Hue will have another night tourism product with a distinct mark, contributing to extending the length of stay and increasing tourists' spending, in line with the spirit of night-time economic development that the tourism industry is aiming for.

Article and photos: MINH HIEN

Source: https://huengaynay.vn/van-hoa-nghe-thuat/dai-noi-hue-cho-dem-sang-den-156038.html