The Holland Village festival that has come for the first time to Ho Chi Minh City offers an insight into Dutch lifestyles and customs through traditional crafts, food, and music.
Being held at the September 23 Park on Pham Ngu Lao Street from October 22 to 31, it features typical Dutch attractions like fish, cheese, and street-music stands that draw thousands of visitors daily.
“The things I like most here are plastic models of tulip flowers, cow farms, and windmills and also traditional Dutch food,” Thao Nghi, a student at the city’s Hong Bang University, said.
“The event helps me learn more about the Dutch people and their culture.”
Dutch tourist Marcel Simons said: “We are happy and proud that the Holland Village … is now taking place in Vietnam”.
“It is nice and interesting.
“I was in a taxi, going around to see the nightlife in HCMC, when I saw the front gate of Holland Village by chance,” Dirty Pierre, a tourist from New Zealand, told Tuoi Tre News.
“This event is amazing.”
Most visitors are fascinated by a 10-meter windmill, a symbol of the Netherlands, placed near the entrance.
The festival features demonstrations of clog making, glass blowing, and pottery by Dutch artists.
The pottery items are decorated with motifs depicting hunting and religious activities and Dutch landscapes with windmills, fishing boats, and others.
Glass artist Frans Limpens blows into a tube to create objects like clarinets, animals, boats, flowers, and motorbikes.
"I have performed in a lot of places around the world like Malaysia, South Korea, Beijing, Hongkong, Bangkok, New York, and now Vietnam,” Limpens said.
“Just show me an object you like and I will make it in glass,” he said confidently.
Also on display are traditional Dutch foods like raw fresh herring with onions and cucumber and poffertjes, a pancake loved by children.
On an open-air stage, there are daily shows of traditional Dutch costumes, floral workshops, accordion music, and milking competitions for children.
Holland Village was first held in Germany in 1980 and has since been held in Japan, China, Thailand, Malaysia, and Canada.
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