Ready for the "Great Tea Banquet"

According to Mr. Do Binh Nguyen, Chief of the Department of Culture and Information - Tourism, member of the serving group of the First International Tea Festival - Thai Nguyen, Vietnam 2011: "Great tea banquet" is a point press, the festival to meet and exchange between the Organizing Board with representatives of tea industry from countries, localities and enterprises, etc. Up to this moment, the preparation for material facilities and people for the "Great tea banquet" such as the system of restaurants, hotels, tea points completed in general, the staffs are ready for this banquet. Mr. Hoang Minh Tuan, Deputy director of Provincial Culture - Information Centre, member of Organizing Board said: The great tea banquet night was the opportunity to promote the strengths of Thai Nguyen tea, honor the character of land and people in  Thai Nguyen and ability of attracting the domestic and international investors in order towards the economic development of tea and other areas of strength point such as industry, agriculture, tourism in the province. On this occasion, Provincial Culture - Information Centre was entrusted by the Organization Board to train the tea man and women the way to brew and offer tea. At present, there are 300 tea man and women can work well and are ready to serve in the "Great tea banquet" and the tea culture exchanges in the province.

Through exchange, we also knew: During the Tea festival, there will be the art performance of tea offer, tea enjoying,  but the most unique, special thing at night of 11th November would be two tea party, (one in Nui Coc Lake tourism area, which would be about Introduction of tea culture" and one at the Museum of the Cultures of Viet Nam’s Ethnic), with the topic: "Tea - the quintessence of heaven and earth." Especially in the evening of 14th November, the “Great tea banquet night" would be held at the yard of 20-8 Square. It is expected to have more than 1,200 people joining to enjoy tea, including the Central guests, guests of the provinces in the country and guests from other countries: Sri Lanka, Japan, Korea, China, India, Laos. AT present, the Viet Nam 21 Events & Communications co JSC 21 are actively involving, as the preparation of necessary materials for decoration of the square yard area, including the types of pictures, photos, big banners, bananas, bamboo, water jars, flower pots ... Mr. Vo Van Tam, General director of Viet Nam 21 Events & Communications  JSC, Deputy director of the Tea Festival organizer board said: We used green trees, water jars, porcelain pots to create each individual different zone, thereby create the plentiful area for the " Great tea banquet night". The VIP area was arranged 40 sets of tea table and chair made of bamboo, table with bowls of fresh flowers, tea utensils, oil lamps, the warm terra-cotta cups of tea (Chu Dau pottery) ... ; 150 sets of tea table and seat  made of bamboo, table with bowls of fresh flower, tea utensils, tea-sets made of terra-cotta (Bat Trang pottery) ... ; and currently 300 tea waitresses who serve tea. At the moment, tables and chairs were gathered at the Provincial Sports Centre. The green plants such as bananas, bamboo used for decoration were taken from Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen provinces.

Before the "Great tea", a 300 m2 wide stage is erected in the city square. Festivities for the stage show the styles of features of Thai Nguyen tea area and tea culture. Both sides of the stage are designed, arranged by theatrical scenes to create the perfect space for artistic items performed on the stage. Under this scenario, the activities of tea enjoy organized in the tea festival program will be various and unique so as to set the new record number of attenders, number of tea tables, tea enjoyers, and tea waitresses making tea, serving tea according to Vietnamese tea culture... Everything was ready for the "Great tea."