Building an urban innovation ecosystem.
The Hanoi Creative Design Festival, held since 2021, has become a unique ecosystem: a gathering place for creative resources, a dialogue between the past and the future to create the city's unique identity – a place connecting heritage with art and technology to create a creative industry ecosystem, making a practical contribution to the national creative economy and international integration…
In 2019, Hanoi was inscribed by UNESCO in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN), becoming the 246th Creative City in the world and the 32nd capital city recognized in the field of Creative Design. To date, the Network has expanded to 408 members. Since then, Hanoi has implemented numerous innovation and integration plans based on the principle of "Taking creativity and the creative economy as the core of the process of developing a dynamic, comprehensive, and sustainable city."
Delegates attending the ceremony
This is also a key element realized in the Hanoi Creative Design Festivals (Hanoi TKST Festival), an annual event held since 2021 with the participation of the creative design community nationwide. The Hanoi TKST Festival has gradually affirmed its unique identity through themes deeply rooted in contemporary culture, specifically: "Inspiring Creativity - 2021: New Life for Heritage", "Design and Technology - 2022: Creativity - Contribution - For the Community", "Connecting Flows and Creative Heritage - 2023: Design - Community - Creativity", "Creative Crossroads - 2024: Dialogue between Heritage Architecture and Contemporary Art".
Continuing the creative flow from the community, following the course of events, the Hanoi Creative Arts Festival not only revives forgotten heritage, transforms creative spaces, and connects young people and the community, but more importantly, it has gathered resources, exploited potential, and promoted policies for the development of the creative economy in the capital city.
Based on this, the Hanoi TKST Festival 2026 is oriented to go beyond a typical annual cultural and artistic event or festival – aiming to become an urban creative institution, a place for converging, testing, and disseminating new ideas, contributing to improving the quality of life for the people of Hanoi. In 2026, the Hanoi TKST Festival will shift from "Organizing a festival" to "Building an urban creative ecosystem" with an interdisciplinary, interconnected approach: Visual arts - Design - Technology - Architecture - Sound - Data - Crafts - Performance… creating multi-sensory experiences, new art forms, and interactive spaces with an international character.
Vice Chairman of Hanoi People's Committee Vu Thu Ha delivered a speech at the ceremony.
Speaking at the ceremony, Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Vu Thu Ha emphasized: The Hanoi Creative Innovation Festival 2026 will be organized as a series of rich activities, aiming to create a strong and sustainable creative ecosystem. Hanoi hopes that projects, ideas, and specific actions that exploit and promote cultural values, tangible and intangible cultural heritage, traditional craft villages, etc., will become creative projects with commercial viability and long-term development, where all efforts to preserve culture, innovate thinking, and develop the economy are harmoniously connected.
"The city of Hanoi hopes to receive even more support from management agencies, universities, businesses, artisans, architects, designers, artists, and the entire creative community to jointly build a Vietnamese creative ecosystem rich in identity, effective, and sustainable at a new level, continuing to realize Hanoi's policy of exploiting cultural resources to sustainably develop the capital's socio-economic development," said Ms. Vu Thu Ha.
Many new features in the Hanoi Traditional Craft Festival 2026.
The Hanoi TKST Festival 2026 is expected to kick off with the "Creative Gathering" event, held in early January 2026 at Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc Square and the Hoan Kiem area of Hanoi, featuring a unique interdisciplinary artistic connection.
Mr. Jonathan Wallace Baker, Head of the UNESCO Office in Vietnam, delivered a speech at the ceremony.
Accordingly, the main activities of the festival are oriented towards building a creative economy - a center for connecting, forum and testing creative economic models, specifically in the following areas: Creative exhibitions; Creative fairs; Creative forums; Creative competitions; Creative projects; Creative design awards; Creative funds; Creative infrastructure.
What sets this year's festival apart is the spread of creative spirit throughout the city, divided into specific zones:
Heritage Space (Dong Xuan Market - Bac Qua area and Dong Xuan Cultural Industry Center): This is the central area of the Festival, where creators and designers will arrange and integrate heritage with creativity, piloting a model of a commercial and cultural development zone, connecting artisans - designers - small traders to form a heritage-creativity-commerce experience route… Transforming a traditional market into a market of the new era of creative economy.
The Old Quarter (Hanoi's Old Quarter with 36 streets): This area revives the "Market - Street - Craft" space: creating "Creative Streets" corresponding to various cultural industries, including experiential spaces for exhibitions, performances, and interactions connecting street life with Hanoi's elite craft villages.
Delegates presented the Certificate for Hanoi's Creative Cultural Space.
Future Space (Network of parks in the city): Activities such as "Creative Education - Future Skills" - This is a playground for students of all levels to participate; public design spaces, international pavilions, competitions, outdoor playgrounds/Fablabs, workshops, creative camps for youth experimentation, community activities…
Ecological Space (Mid-river sandbar of the Red River): With the desire to pilot an "urban-ecological symbiosis" area, this is a space for testing unique ideas, prioritizing landscape art, using local materials - circular design - seasonal experiences; researching a waterway experience route on the Red River.
Community Space (throughout the city): Fostering a spirit of collaborative creative activities, developing innovative economic models, and encouraging the participation of embassies, international organizations; cultural centers, historical and cultural spaces in wards and communes; shopping malls, universities, creative spaces, exhibitions, museums, theaters, restaurants, cafes… proactively organizing activities or supporting the artistic community with venues and co-organizing activities.
Performing arts program
Speaking at the ceremony, Jonathan Wallace Baker, Head of the UNESCO Office in Vietnam, affirmed: The shift from a festival to building a whole creative ecosystem means creating sustainable opportunities for designers, artists, creative businesses, students, and the community. It means integrating creativity into daily urban life, not just confining it to events. The launch of the Hanoi Creative Spaces Network today is a concrete step towards realizing that vision. These creative spaces are not just physical locations, but places to nurture ideas, foster new collaborations, and bring communities together.
"UNESCO wholeheartedly supports Hanoi's creative journey and is delighted to accompany the City on its path to becoming a space of imagination, connection, and innovation," said Jonathan Wallace Baker.
Performing arts program
Within the framework of the ceremony, the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports announced the Decision and awarded Certificates of Hanoi Creative Cultural Space to 82 creative cultural spaces that fully met the criteria according to the Classification and Evaluation Criteria for Spaces participating in the Hanoi Creative Cultural Space Network. This event marks the efforts of Hanoi City in affirming the importance and role of the creative community in building a community ecosystem, a new step on the journey to building a sustainable and inspiring creative city.
Source: https://bvhttdl.gov.vn/le-hoi-thiet-design-sang-tao-2026-chuyen-sang-xay-dung-he-sinh-thai-sang-tao-do-thi-20251210211741045.htm
![[Video] The craft of making Dong Ho folk paintings has been inscribed by UNESCO on the List of Crafts in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.](https://vphoto.vietnam.vn/thumb/402x226/vietnam/resource/IMAGE/2025/12/10/1765350246533_tranh-dong-ho-734-jpg.webp)
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