The third cherry blossom festival in Vietnam will be held at Quan Ngua Sport Complex on April 10-12 to celebrate the 999th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi.

Ho Chi Minh City’s 5th tourism festival 2009 will be held at Dam Sen Cultural Park from April 3-5 by the municipal Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Vietnam Tourism Association.

The Vietnam Guinness Book Centre (Vietbooks) on March 20 granted a certificate of record to Do Nhat Nam, a primary school pupil, recognizing him as Vietnam’s youngest translator.

Irish and Vietnamese artists will give a performance in Hanoi on March 28 to raise funds for Agent Orange/Dioxin victims.

Gerald Gorridge, a French painter, is currently exhibiting a collection of his work from the time he spent in Hue city. The paintings mainly feature the Huong River, the local landscape, Hue city and its people going about their daily lives.

French musician and singer Simon Rochon, who is also known as Simeo and affectionately called the ‘tangled-hair prince’, will begin a six-nation tour of Asia at Hue’s Municipal Cultural House next Monday.

Artists from 11 countries and territories will take part in the festival entitled “Hanoi sound stuff” being held at the Vietnam exhibition centre for culture and art.

A ceremony was held at the Hao Nam communal house in Hanoi on March 18 to celebrate the death anniversary of the ancestors of Hat Xam (Xam singing) – a popular genre of music and performance in northern rural Vietnam centuries ago.

The Vietnamese embassy is joining the embassies of other Francophone countries in Bangladesh to organise the 2009 Francophone Week in the country’s capital Dhaka from March 16-23.

Famous Belgian children’s singer Gibus will perform in Hanoi on March 20-21.

Vietnam started to make preparations for the 2009 Mrs World Pageant on March 18.

A festival for Vietnamese craft villages will be held for the first time in the central city of Da Nang from March 24-29.

The Vietnamese Embassy in Myanmar will organize Vietnamese culture days from April 3-4 to mark the year of Vietnamese cultural diplomacy.

Beauty queens from 73 countries have registered to participate in the Mrs. World Pageant 2009 to be held in the southern coastal province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau on Nov. 22, the organising board announced on March 16.

The Umbrage Editions Publishing House of the US has introduced its first Eddie Adams Photo Book, entitled Eddie Adams: Vietnam.

The 2009 Ha Long Tourism Festival will be held as a carnival of the sea, air and land from April 25 to May 2, according to the Quang Ninh provincial People’s Committee.

The Republic of Korea (RoK)’s Solah song and dance ensemble performed in the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre on March 14.

The Son My Vestiges Area in Central Quang Ngai province has received nearly 30,000 tourists since the beginning of this year, including some 6,000 foreign visitors from many countries around the world, a three-fold increase over the same period last year.

More than 50,000 Buddhist monks, nuns and pilgrims took part in drumming, lion dances and religious rituals on March 13 at the opening of the Quan The Am (Goddess of Mercy) festival in the central city of Da Nang.   

Archaeologists from the Hoa Binh Museum and the Southeast Asia Prehisory Centre have found more than 4,000 ancient artifacts of stone and bone at the Xom Trai archaeological site in Tan Lap commune, Lac Son district in northern Hoa Binh province since 2001. 

The Nhi Dong (Children) newspaper, in collaboration with the European Commission delegation to Vietnam in central Da Nang city launched a gender equality-themed drawing competition for children on March 10.

A French artist, Gerald Gorridge, has unveiled more than 80 paintings of the former imperial city of Hue in his home city of Paris.

The mountainous province of Lai Chau has completed preparations for the 11th cultural, sport and tourism festival for ethnic groups in the northwestern region from March 28-31.

Italian pianist Gabriele Carnano will give a solo performance at the Hanoi Opera House on March 11.

The south central Khanh Hoa provincial People’s Committee has approved a programme for the 2009 Sea Festival, which will be held in the coastal city of Nha Trang from June 6-12.

The National Council for Cultural Heritage has appraised the profile of Ca Tru and will propose to UNESCO that the ancient genre of chamber music be listed as an intangible cultural heritage.

German experts are surveying the Buu Thanh (King Tu Duc’s tomb) in the former imperial city of Hue to prepare for the painstaking restoration of the city’s historical relics and artifacts.

Various Brazilian music genres will be broadcast weekly on VOV3 channel starting Thursday March 12.

21 young photographers, including 4 women from the website cum club www.photo.vn reached the peak of Fansipan mountain, at a height of 3143m, at 10am on March 7 after two days of climbing in cold weather.

The world’s largest jade Buddha statue is being shipped to Vietnam for display in the next few days.