International music festivals part of Hanoi's cultural industry

The 12-hour HAY Glamping Music Festival 2023 with the participation of local and international artists attracted more than 10,000 spectators. The week-long Monsoon Music Festival 2023 has created a music tour whose destinations are the stages scattered around the capital. Not to mention many other music festivals that take place throughout the year, bringing BlackPink, 911, Ronan Keating, and Maroon 5, among other world-renowned music icons.

It's said that international music festivals help make Hanoi a city of musical events and boost the development of the capital's cultural industry.

Development potential

Musician Huy Tuan believes Hanoi has great potential to become a city of music festivals.

"Our country's population is young and loves music, so they need big world-class music festivals. On the other hand, as neighboring countries like China and Thailand have long been heaven for music festivals, a new market like Vietnam's arouses the desire of international artists to explore," Huy Tuan said.

Monsoon Music Festival 2023 is a week-long music festival. It's a music tour with stops at many stages in the capital. Photo: Thanh Viet Production

According to Hoang Linh, director of the HAY Glamping Music Festival, Vietnam is an emerging destination for music lovers in Asia.

"One of the factors that helps the Vietnamese market score points is the interaction of social networks and the warm welcome of the audience," he said.

Social media posts by 911, The Moffatts, BlackPink, Charlie Puth or recently Westlife, Epik High, Ronan Keating about Vietnam and their Vietnam tour receive a huge amount of interaction from Vietnamese fans, much more than their posts about larger markets such as Thailand, India, China and South Korea.

"These figures show that Vietnam has potential, that Vietnamese audiences have expectations, a desire to enjoy music and enthusiastically support artists," Linh said.

International music festivals, which will be held on a large scale from now until the end of the year, are energizing Vietnam's music life. It can be clearly seen that the organizers' ability to hold high-quality music festivals is approaching world-class.

"However, creating is not enough. We must constantly innovate and become more attractive for these festivals to contribute to creating momentum for the Vietnamese music industry," Linh said.

Untiring efforts

Fifteen years ago, musician Quoc Trung went to Denmark to learn how to run music festivals. After the course, the Monsoon Music Festival was born, becoming a special cultural brand of the capital and inspiring other music festivals.

"We always have to remember that this is a community art and a non-profit project. But every year we still have to deal with reporting and licensing procedures," Trung said.

Ronan Keating brings to the HAY Glamping Music Festival a sense of nostalgia for European-American music of the 90s and 2000s through a series of love songs. Photo: VNA

According to him, a sustainable strategy requires consistency. A professional plan requires years of preparation. And consistency and patience are not easily found in Vietnam.

Musician Quoc Trung believes music festivals are closely related to the music and cultural industries. For a music festival to survive and develop, it must become a local symbol that people take care of and are proud of.

"The publicity and benefits a festival brings to a city are always huge. In many places around the world, government attention and support are always the minimum necessary conditions for organizing and developing music festivals," Trung said.

There is a generation of young audiences who have acquired the habit of enjoying music at festivals. However, it takes time for this need to become a regular urge, according to musician Huy Tuan.

He added that only when the audience comes to the festival not because of the artist's name, but the festival's spirit, Monsoon or HAY Fest, will it truly be a unique experience that music festivals bring.

According to Tran Hai Van, Deputy Director of the Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, music is chosen by many cities and localities as their creative power to contribute to sustainable development.

She said the Monsoon Music Festival is one of the important activities to undertake the project to develop the cultural industry in the capital in 2021-2025.

"At the festival, music lovers have immersed themselves in the event and contributed to spreading the spirit of the city of music," she said.

However, music is a genre of art with rapid development, from the artist's compositions to the performance and musical styles. Audiences' musical tastes have also changed greatly, especially in the digital age. This brings both opportunities and challenges that require more creativity, Van said.

"As a companion of many festivals, we are very proud of the success of a Vietnamese music festival like Monsoon. In this spirit, we hope to have more initiatives to develop the Vietnamese music industry in the future," Van added.