Spreading Vietnamese cultural identity
On the evening of March 6th, at Nguyen Hue pedestrian street, the 12th Ho Chi Minh City Ao Dai Festival 2026 officially opened. This year's Ho Chi Minh City Ao Dai Festival has the theme "Golden Silk - Weaving Aspiration", taking place from March 1st to March 31st, with peak days from March 6th to 8th.
Speaking at the opening night, Ms. Tran Thi Dieu Thuy - Vice Chairwoman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee said that the 2026 Ho Chi Minh City Ao Dai Festival is not just an annual cultural and artistic event, but a specific action to transform cultural values into soft power, into resources for tourism, for creative economy and brand positioning of the city.
At the same time, this is a motivation for designers, artists and the creative community to increase the value of ao dai.
Each golden silk woven today not only creates a brilliant ao dai, but also connects tradition with the future, connects identity with integration, connects the city with friends from five continents.
When each citizen is a cultural ambassador, each ao dai is a story told with emotion and belief, the Ho Chi Minh City Ao Dai Festival will not only stop in March but will become a cultural movement spreading throughout the year" - Ms. Dieu Thuy emphasized.
Connecting tradition and future
The opening program of the 2026 Ho Chi Minh City Ao Dai Festival is structured into 3 chapters including "Silk of Time - Heritage Flow", "Connecting Silk - City of Light" and "Weaving Aspiration" combining 3D mapping technology to increase visual effectiveness and artistic depth.
The image of the central cocoon block is chosen as a stage highlight, symbolizing accumulation, transformation and development. From there, depicting the journey of traditional materials to become ao dai imbued with Vietnamese identity.
The program's message emphasizes the connection between generations, between tradition and future, between Ho Chi Minh City and the international community through the image of the national ao dai.
This year's festival gathers 36 designers from all 3 regions of North - Central - South, nearly 400 ao dai, 600 actors - models and 37 ambassadors from many fields, creating a colorful creative convergence picture.
The festival is deployed with 17 main activities spanning from the central area to many areas of the city.
In particular, on the morning of March 8, the program commemorating the 1986th anniversary of the Hai Ba Trung Uprising, the 116th anniversary of International Women's Day combined with folk dance performances with Vietnamese ao dai and ao dai parade activities will gather about 50,000 people at many points in the city, including about 3,000 people on Nguyen Hue street.
