Gia Lai brilliantly opens the festival "Essence of the Great Forest

Attending the opening ceremony were comrades: Ho Quoc Dung - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee; Nguyen Tuan Thanh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, Head of the Organizing Committee of the 2025 Festival of the Quintessence of the Great Forest - Blue Sea. Also attending were former provincial leaders of all periods, comrades in the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Standing Committee of the People's Council, leaders of the Provincial People's Committee, Standing Committee of the Provincial Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee, leaders of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation; representatives of the leaders of departments, branches, sectors, and organizations of the province; representatives of communes and wards in the province and a large number of people and tourists inside and outside the province.

Comrade Nguyen Tuan Thanh - Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, Head of the Organizing Committee of the 2025 Festival of the Quintessence of the Great Forest - Convergence of the Blue Sea delivered the opening speech.

In his opening speech, Comrade Nguyen Tuan Thanh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, Head of the Festival Organizing Committee affirmed: Gia Lai is a land that converges the unique values of the majestic mountains and endless blue sea. Today, it has become even more beautiful and prosperous after the merger of the two old provinces of Binh Dinh and Gia Lai, creating a new economic - cultural - tourism space full of potential. This is a land where every mountain, river, and beach is associated with legends, heroic songs and deep human affection.

Gia Lai is endowed by nature with many beautiful landscapes with long coastline, white sand, clear blue water, combined with the wild, majestic beauty of mountains, forests and vast basalt plateau; Gia Lai province is a land rich in cultural - historical - revolutionary traditions; once the ancient capital of the Champa Kingdom, the origin of the National language, the birthplace of the Tay Son movement associated with the cloth-clothed hero Quang Trung - Nguyen Hue.

Provincial Party Secretary Ho Quoc Dung and Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee presented flowers to sponsors.

In addition to traditional art forms such as tuong, bai choi, and many tangible and intangible cultural heritages imbued with national identity, Gia Lai is also notable for its unique community culture of the Jrai and Ba Na people, expressed through traditional festivals, communal house architecture, especially the Central Highlands gong cultural space - a representative intangible cultural heritage of humanity. Not only rich in identity, Gia Lai is also known as an attractive destination for sea and highland mountain tourism, associated with majestic natural landscapes and unique gong culture.

With its unique terrain, soil and climate, Gia Lai is a leading province in catching and processing seafood, especially ocean tuna products that have reached the world level, while also strongly developing industrial crops, especially coffee, which has become a famous brand, a key product bringing high economic value.

Provincial Party Secretary Ho Quoc Dung beats the drum to open the Festival of the Quintessence of the Great Forest - Convergence of the Blue Sea

All potentials and strengths have been and are being effectively exploited by Gia Lai province to promote rapid and sustainable socio-economic development and in recent years have achieved very important and comprehensive results in most sectors and fields, especially tourism development and marine economy.

Comrade Nguyen Tuan Thanh emphasized that "The Festival of the Quintessence of the Great Forest - The Convergence of the Blue Sea" is not only an opportunity to honor and promote traditional cultural values and natural heritage, but also a bridge to bring the image of the new Gia Lai to reach out and strongly integrate with domestic and international friends. Coming to the Festival of the Quintessence of the Great Forest - The Convergence of the Blue Sea in 2025, you and your guests will experience and discover interesting and impressive activities with unique, rich and diverse activities such as: Enjoying cuisine using ocean tuna to prepare European, Japanese, Korean and Chinese dishes; visiting the OCOP product display booths; enjoying roasted, ground and mixed coffee and being introduced to the Central Highlands gong cultural space; enjoying the art program "Aspiration for the Blue Sea - the Shining Great Forest"; vibrant music performances combined with carnival performances; Performing traditional art forms of the province such as: bai choi, hat tuong, cham pa dance, ho ba trao, ...; enjoying the performances of Street Festival, Light Festival is really attractive to locals and tourists.

Today’s event also has a special significance as it marks the beginning of a new development phase for Gia Lai province – a phase of solidarity, creativity, awakening potential and aspirations to rise up. Gia Lai province identifies cultural – ecological – island tourism as one of the important pillars for socio-economic development, associated with preserving and promoting cultural values and protecting the environment sustainably.

The opening ceremony attracted many people and tourists.

Next, thousands of audiences were immersed in a mysterious and sparkling art space, where music, light and traditional culture blended emotionally in a two-chapter art program.

Accordingly, Chapter 1 “Legend of the Golden Forest and Silver Sea” introduces unique and outstanding content about the homeland, landscape, cultural history and traditions of Gia Lai people today. Recreating festivals and cultural beauties that have become legends characteristic of the people of the Central Highlands (Gia Lai) and the coastal people (formerly Binh Dinh).

Chapter 2 “The sea calls the great forest - firmly reaching out to sea” introduces Gia Lai today with all the potentials and strengths bestowed by nature; long-standing cultural traditions, rich in identity; especially the people of Gia Lai today possess the virtues: dynamism, eagerness to learn and innovate, always united, attached to build the homeland to develop more and more. Not only proud to inherit the values of “Golden Forest - Silver Sea”, but the people of Gia Lai today are ready to open their arms, inviting domestic tourists to come to travel, cooperate, invest and develop together in the era of happiness, prosperity, prosperity, and growth of the nation.

Each performance in the program is elaborately staged, smoothly combining traditional and modern elements, folk performing arts with modern lighting and sound technology, creating a lively and attractive multi-layered stage effect. This harmonious combination contributes to clearly depicting the cultural identity of the land of the great mountains and blue sea, while leaving a strong impression and deep emotions in the hearts of the audience.

Closing the art program, the audience was delighted with a brilliant low-altitude fireworks display, creating a highlight for the festival night.

The 2025 “Essence of the Great Forest – Convergence of the Blue Sea” Festival is held to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the August Revolution (August 19, 1945 – August 19, 2025) and the National Day of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (September 2, 1945 – September 2, 2025). The festival will take place for 5 days, from August 28 to September 2, 2025, promising to bring many impressive experiences to people and tourists, contributing to honoring the culture and promoting the development of tourism and economy of Gia Lai.

Some pictures at the Art Show "Blue Sea Aspiration - Shining Great Forest":