Promoting Festival Development in UNESCO Creative Cities

The program is within the framework of the Hanoi People's Committee's Plan to participate in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in 2025. The event is not only a forum for Hanoi to demonstrate its commitment to promoting cultural resources but also a valuable opportunity to connect and learn from international experiences. The event has the participation of experts from many famous creative cities such as Chiangmai (Thailand), Kobe (Japan), Bandung (Indonesia), Wuhan (China), ... who discussed and shared practices in creative design.

Photo caption — The program is within the framework of implementing the Plan of the Hanoi People's Committee on participating in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network by 2025.

Bringing the perspective from “Asahikawa Design Week”, Ms. Tomoko Hayashi, Executive Committee Member, Federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan and Ms. Tomoko Hayashi, International Relations Coordinator, Industrial Promotion Division, Department of Economic Affairs , Asahikawa City Hall emphasized that one of the declarations of Asahikawa Design City (Japan) is to enhance the public’s design appreciation and understanding: “We will strive to enhance the public’s design appreciation and understanding. This will also help strengthen the community bond within the design city. We will also strive to expand the network of connections between design cities by learning about the diverse cultures that exist in each city.” In particular, noting the role of the younger generation, encouraging young people to cultivate knowledge through education and practical experience, Asahikawa City put forward the message “Let's design a youth empowerment mechanism to create medium-term impacts for local communities”.

Meanwhile, Ms Tan Shen Lene Esther, Deputy Director of Industry, Singapore Design Council, focused on the story of commitment to sustainability and urban design strategy to create a livable city.

Ms Tan Shen Lene Esther said that Singapore is moving towards an innovation-driven economy, where waste reduction and sustainable lifecycles for festival materials are important. She shared practical initiatives being implemented, such as converting recycled structural materials into office furniture, or applying flexible modular design so that components can be easily distributed and reused for different exhibitions.

According to the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports , a number of experts representing the city in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network discussed the theme of Festivals in Creative Cities to promote global exchanges on organizing creative festivals, and to build a common framework towards impactful, inclusive and sustainable festival programs.

Through multi-dimensional sharing from international experts, the exchange program has opened up many practical suggestions for Hanoi in organizing creative festivals. This is an important premise for the Capital to build cultural programs that are not only entertaining but also contribute to sustainable development, affirming Hanoi's position in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.

Since joining the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, Hanoi has successfully organized the Creative Design Festival and has gone through 4 festival seasons. The scale and quality of the Festival have been increasingly expanded, creating a strong influence and inspiration, bringing extremely new creative discoveries into the common creative pulse of the city. The Festival attracts a large number of creative practitioners, organizations, and businesses to connect with each other to increase opportunities for cooperation in development and positioning the Hanoi Creative City brand.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/xa-hoi/thuc-day-phat-trien-le-hoi-trong-thanh-pho-sang-tao-cua-unesco-20251205125405418.htm