The festival’s highlights from Down Under include performances by composer Darrin Verhagen, an experimental theatrical show titled Fire Moves Away by a group of young artists from Sydney and fire dancing and physical theatre from The Carnival of the Divine Imagination performing arts troupe.

The Carnival of the Divine Imagination has been performing around Australia and across Asia for the past eight years. The troupe’s new show, called Elixia, combines circus acts with an innovative visual style that includes costumes that glow in the dark thanks to UV lighting. Similar in style is the Fire Moves Away show, which offers audiences a chance to see some modern dance from Down Under.

Australian composer and musician Verhagen, who is a lecturer at the RMIT University in Melbourne, will dazzle festival-goers with a show of electronic music that combines modern sounds with multi-media visuals, including video art, a genre that’s still relatively new to Vietnam.

Australia will also showcase another aspect of its culture at the festival with the South Australia Wine and Food Show, which promotes links between the two festival cities of Hue and Adelaide.

Australia is proud to have left a distinct impression at each Hue Festival. In 2008, the Australian artistic group Well-spring worked with Hue artists to create Dragon and Phoenix, a large-scale sculptural work depicting two symbolic animals important to Vietnamese spiritual life.

Australian ambassador Allaster Cox said he is proud to be introducing Australian artists to Vietnamese audiences at such a highly reputed festival.

People hoping to see some of the Australian artists can still catch them at the festival. Elixia will be showing on Friday and Sunday at the An Dinh Palace, while Verhagen and the Fire Moves Away show will play the Hue City Cultural house tonight.