…in 2012 is currently running in Hue, Vietnam till Sunday: Yesterday the 2nd Vietnam International Choir Competition 2012 has started. Most of the participating choirs have arrived yesterday, and in the morning it was pouring with rain, unfortunately! In the afternoon weather brightened up and the event’s opening started with the big parade of choirs as scheduled.

Choirs gathered behind their country’s flags on the square in front of the Culture & Information Center of the Province and then followed a row of Asian paper dragons through the city. Also the INTERKULTUR team joined the parade and “the atmosphere was great!”

The Opening Concert in the evening was a big TV show, broadcasted by the Vietnamese state television. The Iriga City Singing Ambassadors from Philippines wowed the audience with “We will rock you” by Freddy Mercury and also the Malaysian Institute of Art’s Ladies Chorus (conducted by Zimfira Poloz) performed in the show, although it was not clear before, if they can go on stage at all, because they arrived late and did not attend the rehearsal on the day before.

Today choirs will perform in the competitions, Folklore category is already running. It’s also exciting for us, because there are two new adjudicators in Vietnam who have not joined an INTERKULTUR competition ever before: Henri Pompidor from France, now living in Thailand, and Chi Hoe Mak from Malaysia. Have fun with the evaluation!

Oh well, and there are already first pictures from the first days available on flickr, check them out soon!