{"id":3424,"date":"2026-06-23T16:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T07:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=3424"},"modified":"2026-06-23T13:55:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T04:55:39","slug":"hue-lotus-night","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/news\/hue-lotus-night\/","title":{"rendered":"Night moves at Hue's lotus pond, the \"Giac Thuy show,\" new tourism lighting up the old capital"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The night of the ancient capital Hue began to move on a lotus pond. At the \"Hue Lotus Festival 2026 (Ng\u00e0y h\u1ed9i Sen Hu\u1ebf),\" held June 19\u201321, 2026, the immersive show \"Th\u1ee9c Th\u1ee7y Show\" \u2014 combining light, music, and lotus cuisine \u2014 was performed on the water of Tinh Tam Lake (T\u1ecbnh T\u00e2m Lake), close to the Nguyen dynasty's royal palace. The venue was Bong Lai Islet floating in the lake. Visitors reportedly reached about 10,000 over three days. A Hue trip that used to end with daytime World Heritage touring gained one more option \u2014 night \u2014 a move Japanese travelers can't overlook either.<\/p>\n<h2>What exactly was the \"Th\u1ee9c Th\u1ee7y Show\" floating on a lotus pond?<\/h2>\n<p>The Th\u1ee9c Th\u1ee7y Show was a performance-and-dining event staged at night as the centerpiece of the Hue Lotus Festival 2026. With the water's surface as the stage, contemporary dance and music layer with lighting effects using lotus flowers as a motif, and a six-course lotus-themed menu prepared in the style of Hue imperial cuisine is served there. The local paper VietnamNews described this course as \"six lotus-inspired dishes cooked in the Hue culinary style.\"<\/p>\n<p>The overall festival theme is \"Ng\u1ef1 Li\u00ean Th\u1ee9c Th\u1ee7y.\" It carries the meaning of awakening the sleeping beauty of the lotus by the water. Along with lotus-flower displays and photo spots, devices to touch the lotus with all five senses were placed across the whole island \u2014 a workshop to experience brewing lotus tea with an artisan, hand-made lotus crafts from Thanh Tien village (making paper lotuses), lotus essential oil and skincare experiences, and lotus bracelet weaving. Merchandise like lotus sweets, tea, and jam, and ao dai embroidered with lotus patterns, also lined up.<\/p>\n<p>Phan Thanh Hai, director of Hue City's Department of Culture and Sports, positions the lotus, alongside the ao dai and court ceremonial music, as \"worthy of recognition as a central symbol of Hue's cultural identity.\" You can sense the aim of nurturing the lotus not as a one-off event but as a tourism asset symbolizing Hue.<\/p>\n<h2>Why \"night\"? \u2014 the weakness Hue's night tourism has carried<\/h2>\n<p>Behind the Th\u1ee9c Th\u1ee7y Show being set at night lies a challenge Hue has long carried. Even as an ancient capital home to the World Heritage Nguyen dynasty royal palace and imperial tombs, and Thua Thien's nature, Hue's tourism suddenly thinned out once the sun set.<\/p>\n<p>The symbol of that is the \"Hue Imperial City Night Street (Ph\u1ed1 \u0111\u00eam Ho\u00e0ng th\u00e0nh).\" Though it started with great fanfare in 2022 as the ancient capital's flagship nighttime product, foot traffic dropped in a short time, it lost its liveliness, and operation stopped in 2025. Local media report that another attempt, the Hai B\u00e0 Tr\u01b0ng pedestrian street, is also struggling to draw crowds while lacking a distinctive product, despite investing about 100 billion dong (at 1 dong \u2248 0.006 yen as of June 2026, on the order of 600 million yen) in infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding Vietnam's night tourism, the industry's complaint that \"there's nothing but eating and walking, and this won't grow\" has been repeated for a long time. Compared with Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Hue was a city that particularly lacked a \"reason to stay the night.\" Many travelers book lodging in Da Nang or Hoi An, and pass through Hue on a day trip seeing only the royal palace \u2014 Hue's side surely wants to break that pattern. The Th\u1ee9c Th\u1ee7y Show can be read as a fresh attempt, learning from the Imperial City Night Street's failure, to rebuild an experiential night that isn't just \"walking and eating.\"<\/p>\n<h2>The scale seen in numbers, and the difference from past night tourism<\/h2>\n<p>To the extent we've confirmed, here we organize the outline of this festival.<\/p>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Item<\/th>\n<th>Hue Lotus Festival 2026 \/ Th\u1ee9c Th\u1ee7y Show<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Dates<\/td>\n<td>June 19\u201321, 2026 (3 days)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Venue<\/td>\n<td>Bong Lai Islet, Tinh Tam Lake (Phu Xuan district)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Attendance<\/td>\n<td>About 10,000 people (3-day total \/ multiple reports)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Structure of the night show<\/td>\n<td>On-water dance, music, lighting + a 6-course lotus menu<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Experience<\/td>\n<td>Lotus tea making, lotus paper crafts, lotus essential oil, lotus bracelet weaving, and more<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>The figure of about 10,000 people over three days is a scale closer to a \"trial run\" than a huge crowd-drawing event. Still, whereas the past Imperial City Night Street lost customers little by little under permanent operation, this time narrowed the period and raised the density with materials unique to the ancient capital \u2014 royal palace culture and the lotus. It can be called a design that went for a density of experience that makes you want to repeat, rather than quantity. Note that admission fees and show prices could not be confirmed in reliable primary sources, so this article doesn't assert amounts. Check the organizers' latest announcements before visiting.<\/p>\n<h2>Voices of visitors and organizers<\/h2>\n<p>From local reports, a sense of momentum and a foundation for the future come into view.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Local media report that visitors enjoyed a court-style banquet while gazing at the lotus on Bong Lai Islet, appearing \"fascinated (th\u00edch th\u00fa).\" The space woven from the lake's lighting and lotus cuisine seems to have left an aftertaste entirely different from daytime ruins touring.<\/li>\n<li>The experience of brewing lotus tea together with an artisan, and Thanh Tien village's hand-made lotus crafts, drew families and young travelers, functioning as photo spots too.<\/li>\n<li>Tran Huu Thuy Giang, the organizers' deputy chief, says he wants to grow this festival, not end it as a one-off, into \"a cultural tourism product with its own brand,\" and run it \"regularly, systematically, and professionally\" going forward.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The point that the word \"branding\" is repeated is important. Hue positions itself as the \"city of festivals\" and \"the center of Vietnam's cultural tourism,\" and you can read the intent to make the Th\u1ee9c Th\u1ee7y Show, blending the lotus and the royal palace, into standard content that supports that banner.<\/p>\n<h2>Implications for Japanese travelers \u2014 the value of adding a day of \"night\" to a Hue trip<\/h2>\n<p>From here is our own view. Many people visiting Hue from Japan tour the royal palace, imperial tombs, and the Perfume River in the day, and move on to Da Nang by evening. If night shows like the Th\u1ee9c Th\u1ee7y Show take hold, a reason to rearrange that itinerary arises.<\/p>\n<p>Concretely, after seeing the royal palace in the afternoon, you savor a lotus banquet at Tinh Tam Lake at night \u2014 you can make a day connecting day and night with the same \"Nguyen dynasty aesthetic.\" To an experience that was only seeing World Heritage architecture, taste (lotus cuisine), sound (music), and sight (light on the water) are added, raising the resolution of your memory of the city of Hue by a notch. This is a change that could overturn the conventional assessment that \"half a day is enough for Hue.\"<\/p>\n<p>For Japanese travelers drawn to the lotus itself, there's also the joy of touring to match the season. In northern Hanoi, West Lake is dyed a field of lotus in June,<a href=\"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/news\/westlake-lotus-season\/\">an early-morning spectacle<\/a>known as. Even the same lotus wears an entirely different face between Hanoi's \"morning flower field\" and Hue's \"night banquet.\" A themed trip connecting north and south along the axis of the lotus is also possible.<\/p>\n<p>What to watch out for is that such festivals are limited to their period. Whether the Th\u1ee9c Th\u1ee7y Show itself becomes a regular fixture depends on future operation, so if you go for a Hue night, it's wise to check in advance what's being performed during your visit. For those who want to touch the ancient capital's traditional performing arts, the<a href=\"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/news\/hanoi-cheo-dining\/\">experience of watching the traditional performing art cheo with a meal in a 100-year-old house in Hanoi<\/a>should also pair well as a way to spend a night around culture.<\/p>\n<h2>The \"nighttime immersive\" trend spreading across Vietnam<\/h2>\n<p>The Th\u1ee9c Th\u1ee7y Show isn't Hue's idea alone, and the outlook improves when grasped as part of Vietnam's overall tourism trend. Municipalities everywhere hit the same wall \u2014 that daytime sights alone don't extend length of stay and spending \u2014 and seek a way out in nighttime experiential content.<\/p>\n<p>In Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, shows using light and sound and the sophistication of night markets are advancing, and even in regional cities, experiments with nighttime programs using history and nature as materials are happening one after another. In Hue's case, those materials were \"Nguyen dynasty court culture\" and \"the lotus.\" How to monetize at night an asset other cities don't have \u2014 World Heritage \u2014 Hue's attempt can become a model case for other regions facing the same challenge.<\/p>\n<p>Seen from the traveler's side, this is good news. A state is emerging where, each time you revisit Vietnam, there are more ways to enjoy the night than there were last time. Not limited to Hue, such immersive-type night shows are a keyword worth keeping in mind for future itinerary design. Incidentally, near Hue, there's also an example of an abandoned water park<a href=\"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/news\/hue-dragon-ruins\/\">gaining popularity as a photogenic spot with a giant dragon,<\/a>and the ancient capital is steadily increasing its drawers beyond the \"standard World Heritage.\"<\/p>\n<h2>Practical information \u2014 dates, place, access<\/h2>\n<p>Here we organize the basic information for the 2026 festival. Note that since it's held for a limited period, check the dates and program of future editions in the organizers' announcements.<\/p>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Item<\/th>\n<th>Details<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Event name<\/td>\n<td>Hue Lotus Festival 2026 (Ng\u00e0y h\u1ed9i Sen Hu\u1ebf 2026)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Night show<\/td>\n<td>Th\u1ee9c Th\u1ee7y Show<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Dates<\/td>\n<td>June 19\u201321, 2026<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Venue<\/td>\n<td>Bong Lai Islet, Tinh Tam Lake (B\u1ed3ng Lai Islet, T\u1ecbnh T\u00e2m Lake \/ Phu Xuan district)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Nearest<\/td>\n<td>The area north of Hue's royal palace (Imperial City). Within walking or taxi distance of the royal palace<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Access<\/td>\n<td>Taxi or Grab from central Hue is convenient. On the north bank of the Perfume River, the Old Quarter side<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Experience<\/td>\n<td>Lotus tea making, lotus paper crafts, lotus cuisine course, merchandise<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>The fee isn't listed, as it couldn't be confirmed in primary sources. Allowing half a day to a full day as a set with touring Hue's royal palace lets you comfortably combine the daytime ruins and the nighttime lotus banquet. Since the lotus is at its best in the hot summer, a visit around June is a good chance to enjoy the lotus itself.<\/p>\n<h2>Summary<\/h2>\n<p>The Th\u1ee9c Th\u1ee7y Show was an attempt to add the line \"night\" to a Hue trip that used to be complete with daytime World Heritage. Learning from the bitter precedent of the Imperial City Night Street's suspension, Hue's seriousness shows in raising the density of experience with materials unique to the ancient capital \u2014 royal palace culture and the lotus. Even if the scale of about 10,000 over three days is still small, judging by the organizers' stance of talking about branding and regularization, this may not end as a one-off festival. If you visit Hue from Japan, straight from seeing the royal palace to the nighttime lotus pond \u2014 a day like that may become standard in the near future. Note that Vietnam's major tourist destinations are<a href=\"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/news\/vietnam-asia-attractions\/\">also raising their reputation as popular spots in Asia,<\/a>and strengthening Hue's night tourism can be called one move that boosts that trend.<\/p>\n<p>Sources:<a href=\"https:\/\/vietnamnews.vn\/life-style\/1783029\/lotus-festival-lights-up-hue-s-summer.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">VietnamNews\u300cLotus Festival lights up Hu\u1ebf&#8217;s summer\u300d<\/a>\uff0f<a href=\"https:\/\/vneconomy.vn\/ngay-hoi-sen-hue-2026-thu-hut-10000-luot-khach-tham-quan.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">VnEconomy\u300cNg\u00e0y h\u1ed9i Sen Hu\u1ebf 2026 thu h\u00fat 10.000 l\u01b0\u1ee3t kh\u00e1ch\u300d<\/a>\uff0f<a href=\"https:\/\/bnews.vn\/dem-hoi-sen-ben-ho-tinh-tam-va-giac-mo-thuong-hieu-hue\/425792.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bnews.vn\u300c\u0110\u00eam h\u1ed9i sen b\u00ean h\u1ed3 T\u1ecbnh T\u00e2m\u300d<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The water-based immersive show \"Gi\u00e1c Th\u1ee7y Show,\" unveiled at Hue's Lotus Festival 2026. We read, from the perspective of Japanese travelers, this move to transform the ancient capital's weak nighttime tourism.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"swell_btn_cv_data":"","ssp_meta_description":"","ssp_meta_keyword":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,56],"tags":[],"purpose":[],"keyword":[],"location":[],"class_list":["post-3424","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","category-news","category-travel-guide"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/3424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3424"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/3424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3430,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/3424\/revisions\/3430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3424"},{"taxonomy":"purpose","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/purpose?post=3424"},{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=3424"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=3424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}