2018 Gong Cultural Festival slated for mid-November

The opening ceremony of 2017 Gong Cultural Festival

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has instructed the People’s Committee of the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai to work with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) and relevant agencies to organise the 2018 Gong Cultural Festival.

The festival is scheduled to take place in this year’s mid-November in the province, with the unity of local ethnic communities as its main theme.

The Gia Lai People’s Committee has been tasked to efficiently utilise social sources along with part of the province’s coffer to organise the festival.

Numerous activities will be jointly held by five Central Highlands provinces, namely a street festival featuring gong performances, re-enactment of some traditional rituals and festivals of 11 ethnic groups of the region.

The art of wood sculpture and brocade weaving will also be introduced during the festival, along with seminars on the conservation of gong cultural values and exhibitions on ethnic costumes.

The event is to honour the Cultural Space of Gong of Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) in line with an action plan of the MCST to preserve and promote the gong cultural heritage in the province.

The Cultural Space of Gong of Tay Nguyen was recognised by the UNESCO as a masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of the humanity in 2005. It is closely linked to the daily life of local people. Their belief systems form a mystical world where the gongs produce a privileged language between men, divinities and the supernatural world.