National Ca trù Festival 2014 took place from 26^th - 29^th August 2014 at the Vietnamese Institute for Music-ology. Twenty-five groups from twelve provinces and cities, where Ca trù is being practiced, performed 117 featu-red items of Ca trù in four festival days. Many items proved folk artists and artists’ passion and effort to industriously exploit, recover and prac-tise Ca trù ancient value.  

The festival ended with 29 prizes awarded to outstanding items. There were five golden prizes, six silver prizes, twelve bronze prizes, one prize for item containing beautiful dance and one prize for the best recovering ancient materials. The also awarded one prize for ancient material conservation for item Non mai hồng hạnh to UNESCO Ca trù Club (Hanoi). Besides prizes for items, the Arts Council awarded 23 prizes for indivi-duals: nine prizes for distinguished singers, eight prizes for distinguished instrumentalists, one prize for promising instrumentalist, two prizes for promising singers, one prize for the most excellent rewritten Ca trù lyric and two prizes for youngest performers (4-5 years old).

In the National Ca trù  Festival 2014 Award  ceremony, the Organization Board also held the ceremony of offe-ring performing clothes to two youngest outstanding singers namely Nguyễn Khánh Linh (18 years old, from Ca trù Ngãi Cầu Club, Hanoi) and Nguyễn Thu Thảo (20 years old, from Ca trù Thái Hà, Hanoi).

National Ca trù Festival 2014 came to an end with remarkable success. The number of young singers possessing excellent vocal and technique signi-ficantly increased comparing to 2011. This Festival has strengthened our belief in the rebirth and fruition of Ca trù art. However, despite that positive success, Ca trù clubs and agencies expect more favor, care and encouragement from authorities and culture management branches to keep Ca trù art sustainably developed in the community today and tomorrow.

NGUYỄN THỦY TIÊN