Memories and endings
“My house is separated from Lan Anh stage by a wall. Before, I could climb up to the rooftop and see many activities. For the past month, I have heard the rumbling of bulldozers next door, and then when I heard the news that Lan Anh stage was being dismantled and closed, I felt really sad. So an address that has been associated with music lovers in the city for decades has become a memory…”, Ms. Nguyen Thi Cam Le (living in District 10, Ho Chi Minh City), shared her feelings when she heard the news that Lan Anh stage was “turning off the lights”.
The news that Lan Anh stage has stopped operating has made many artists and audiences nostalgic about the old days of traditional music venues in Ho Chi Minh City, such as: Trong Dong stage, Cau Vong 126 stage, stages in Le Van Tam Park, Le Thi Rieng, Hoang Van Thu... According to musician - Meritorious Artist The Hien, the beginning of the music venue and stage model was probably the performance form at the coffee shop of the Ho Chi Minh City Youth Cultural House in the early 1980s. After that, the experimental music stage was opened at Tao Dan Park (in 1982) and in turn the Cau Vong 126 stages (1986), Trong Dong (1989), Lan Anh (1997)... forming a chain of large-scale music stage venues, becoming a "launching pad" for artists, music groups and serving the enjoyment needs of the people. Many golden voices have shone from this place, such as: Bao Yen, Nha Phuong, Cam Van, Phuong Thanh, Lam Truong, Thanh Thao, Dam Vinh Hung, Dan Truong, My Tam, Le Quyen...
After about 20 years of prosperity, music venues have gradually shrunk, operated at a standstill, and lost their appeal. Efforts to change and find ways to maintain music venues have not yielded results. The most recent major program at Lan Anh stage was the live concert Upgeneration by singer Trinh Thang Binh (March 2023), which failed to impress the audience. Trong Dong stage seemed to have "revived" at one point; with shows in collaboration with the producer of the show May Lang Thang, but then continued to suffer from the bleak situation due to the lack of audience. The last major program held here was Cùng đánh con lo (July 2024) with singers such as Quoc Dai, Ha Van, Ho Van Cuong, and the comedy group Gia Bao. With the closure of the Rainbow 126 stage in 2016, the trio of music venues on Cach Mang Thang Tam Street, including Trong Dong - 126 - Lan Anh - with a capacity of thousands of spectators, have fallen into silence amidst the hustle and bustle of the city and the increasingly strong music industry.
Lack of large scale performance venues
There is a very clear contrast, while the music venues once known as the "music capital" of Ho Chi Minh City have to quietly close down, the city's music market is recording an unprecedented boom. A series of large-scale music programs such as the Ho Chi Minh City International Music Festival, individual and group live concerts have attracted hundreds of thousands of audiences of all ages. All have shown a reality, the end of stage venues is not the end of the performance industry but a profound reflection of the audience's change in the need to enjoy art.
However, a new reality has also emerged, Ho Chi Minh City is lacking large-scale public performance venues. Producers are forced to take advantage of the space of sports stadiums, exhibition halls or new urban areas to set up stages that can hold performances for tens of thousands of spectators. This staging is extremely costly in terms of time, effort, and money, and even due to being done too hastily, some staging units had their scaffolding collapse close to the performance date, forcing the program to be moved elsewhere.
Mr. Nguyen Xuan An, Communications Director of Yeah 1, the organizer of the concert Anh trai vu ngan cong gai, said: "Although they are the two largest cities in the country, in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi , finding a venue with enough capacity to accommodate 30,000-50,000 spectators is very difficult, often temporary. While that audience level is only the basis for organizing large concerts today, both by domestic and international artists."
Mr. Pham Minh Toan, Director of Vietfest - a unit with experience in organizing the 2 most recent Ho Chi Minh City International Music Festivals, who has studied festivals in Thailand, Korea, and the UK, analyzed: "When music event investors want to organize in Vietnam, they will ask about the venue and ticket sales policy. In particular, what they care about is that the infrastructure must be large enough and separate enough to organize continuously for at least 2-3 days, sometimes even 1 week or 1 month. Only then will it be able to attract audiences, promote tourism, economic, and cultural industry development."
Ho Chi Minh City - a place that is considered to have a strong potential for developing the music industry and has actually been very successful with many large-scale, international-class programs such as those of Ha Anh Tuan, My Tam, Den Vau, Vu., Trung Quan, Hoang Dung... or large concerts such as Anh trai vuon ngan cong gai, Anh trai say hi, Chi dep dap gio roe song, Dai nhac hoi 8Wonder... The problem is how to have a good venue, qualified to meet international-class technical requirements, attracting the public, especially young audiences.
Producer - musician HUY TUAN:
“In my opinion, to have truly international standard stages with a capacity of tens of thousands of spectators, we cannot just rely on private investment but need synchronous coordination between the State and the private sector... The State really needs policies and projects to invest in cultural institutions. On the private side, we need to put the artistic element first and then consider profits.”
Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/tu-diem-ca-nhac-truyen-thong-thoai-trao-tuong-lai-nao-cho-cong-nghiep-bieu-dien-post797658.html
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