Pham Van Thuy, Head of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's Department of Local Culture answered questions about reducing the shortcomings at festivals.

 Crowd at Dong Temple during Yen Tu Festival

Though the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has made efforts to improve the quality of festivals, several shortcomings continue to be reported, such as the burning of votive materials at inappropriate locations which cause both eye and environmental pollution.

The department has drafted a festival management plan for the period of 2012-2020, with view towards 2030. According to the plan, between 2012 and 2015 large folk festivals will be assessed. A conference to review and evaluate their activities will be held in 2015 in order to identify necessary adjustments. Between 2016 and 2020, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism hopes to assess and classify 100% of the folk festivals and revamp 50% of the large festivals.

After a long period of preparation, what is the current state of the draft planning on managing festivals?

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism appointed the Department of Local Culture as the festival management agency and we are responsible for making the plan. We have completed a draft plan and are also gathering opinions from other agencies. We hope to have a completed plan by the third quarter of this year.

There are more than 7,000 festivals around the country. What is the best approach to managing them?

We have 7,966 festivals, of which 7,039 are considered 'folk festivals' the rest being religious, revolutionary or careers fairs.

Depending on the scale of the festival, we will decide which agencies, either at the provincial or district level, can best manage the festival. Some festivals, such as those promoting or celebrating coconut, coffee or crafts, will only be held once every five years. With the folk festivals, however, the government will only play a monitoring role. So if festivals fail to attract people, they will gradually disappear on their own. On the other hand, certain festivals that hold cultural significance will be preserved and improved.

We will also reduce the number of duplicate festivals, such as the Tran Temple Festival, which is being held in both Nam Dinh and Thai Binh provinces. We will only keep the main festival and stop other duplicates in order to keep better tabs over them. The organisers must follow regulations and will not be allowed to expand the festival's scale.

Some festivals have been making attempts to reach a national scale. Will the department stand in the way of such attempts?

It is true that several festivals have been attempting to expand their scale by socialising their funding. After the draft plan is approved, however, they will no longer be able to make a unilateral decision to expand.

You've mentioned that the measure of which agency, be it at the provincial or district level, will depend on the festival's size. Is this the best method to monitor and control such festivals?

Although this hasn't been written into law yet, in practice we have been following these same methods for a long time. By writing it into law we are assigning responsibility to specific agencies, which will hopefully reduce the amount of 'social vice' that occurs.

What about the resurrection of several folk festivals? Wouldn't they be destined to become just stage shows?

We will try to prevent this from happening. The attempt to bring back folk festivals needs to place appropriate value on retaining tradition, without promoting superstition.

Will you have enough manpower to monitor and manage more than 7,000 festivals?

Yes, we will definitely have enough manpower for this job. We also held conferences to gather opinions from agencies and individuals in order to collect more information.