HCMC – HCMC hosted the 11th Ao Dai Festival on March 8, with a dance performance and costume parade, celebrating the iconic Vietnamese garment.
The event, organized by the HCMC Department of Tourism and the HCMC Women’s Union, attracted over 50,000 participants from across the city and featured a series of cultural displays on Saturday.
The highlight of the festival was the “Ao Dai Folk Dance Performance,” gathering over 3,000 people at Nguyen Hue pedestrian street, including city leaders, representatives from various districts, artists, and local citizens.
Another key feature of this year’s festival was the first-ever historical costume parade in HCMC, with almost 1,000 participants showcasing Vietnam’s traditional garments through the ages, tracing a route through major city landmarks, including Nguyen Hue, Le Loi, and Ben Thanh Metro Station.
Speaking at the event, Pham Thi Thanh Hien, chairwoman of the HCMC Women’s Union, emphasized the role of Vietnamese women in history, from defending the nation to contributing to its development. She extended warm wishes to all women on International Women’s Day.
Ruslan Varankou, consul general of Belarus in HCMC, congratulated Vietnamese women and emphasized ao dai’s deep-rooted significance in Vietnam’s cultural identity. “Ao dai is in the DNA of Vietnamese people,” he said, advocating for its international promotion and encouraging travelers worldwide to visit Vietnam.
Naia, a young French tourist attending the event, expressed her admiration for ao dai, noting its surprising comfort in tropical weather. She shared her enthusiasm for purchasing her first ao dai at the festival’s marketplace.
Adding a modern twist, local university students Duyen and Luan brought a unique fusion of Japanese manga aesthetics and Vietnamese ao dai to the event. Inspired by characters from the game Genshin Impact, they aimed to highlight the evolving artistic expressions of Vietnamese youth.
