Many folk singing clubs operate at a standstill.

(Baonghean) - After a period of active activity, the folk singing movement in some localities in the province seems to be calming down.

The Khanh Son Commune Folk Song Club (Nam Dan) was established in 2013. Although they still participate fully in every Vi and Giam folk song festival at all levels, their regular activities have almost been forgotten. Mr. Ha Quang Duc - Club Chairman said: "Currently, the club has about 25 members, mainly farmers, they often do many different side jobs, so maintaining regular club activities is extremely difficult, sometimes for months there is no activity.

Only when there are festivals or performances, the club can gather its members, practice for a short time and then compete. The club has achieved certain achievements but has not yet developed the potential of the people, cultural traditions and history of the locality. Currently, Nam Dan has 6 folk song clubs located in the communes of Kim Lien, Xuan Hoa, Khanh Son, Nam Kim, Van Dien, Nam Cat and in general, they are operating at a low level.

People of Tan Son commune (Do Luong) practice performing folk songs. Photo: Huy Thu

Folk song clubs have encountered many difficulties in operation, but some localities with vibrant art movements, long-standing folk song movements, and artistic cores have not been able to establish clubs.

In hamlet 7, Dai Son commune (Do Luong), the art troupe of the Elderly Association is jokingly called the "farmer art troupe", holding regular weekly activities at the hamlet's cultural house, especially singing folk songs.

The team's operating expenses are self-funded, and the performance costumes are collected and purchased by the members themselves. Despite their enthusiasm for performing arts activities, for many years, the people's desire to establish a folk song club so that the movement can become organized and have widespread influence has not been met as desired.

Similarly, the Thanh Chi commune art troupe (Thanh Chuong) has continuously won many high prizes in art competitions and performances in the cluster and district. The troupe has about 20 non-professional actors, mainly commune officials, some artists, some people who compose and stage all the programs, do not have to hire outsiders, and regularly organize art performances to serve the local people.

Despite the excitement, the folk song club has not yet been established here. Explaining this, Mr. Tran Duc Khieng - a cultural officer of Thanh Chi commune said: "Although we really want to establish one, the locality has not yet gathered all the elements to form a folk song club."

According to Mr. Nguyen Thien Dung - Head of the Department of Culture and Information of Nam Dan district, the limited operation as well as the difficulty in establishing folk song clubs in some localities is mainly due to the influence of the market mechanism and limited funding. In particular, funding plays an extremely important role, most of the clubs currently use their own funds for activities, with modest contributions from the People's Committees of communes, support from philanthropists, children far from home, etc.

On the other hand, it is necessary to frankly admit that many localities have movements, good cultural cores and people are very enthusiastic in responding, but the establishment of clubs is still "frozen", more or less because local officials are not active, flexible and enthusiastic about the movement.

In the province, the number of folk song clubs is no longer increasing as rapidly as before. In the first half of 2013, the province had 60 clubs, by the end of 2014 there were 82 clubs, by the end of 2015 there were 96 clubs, by the end of 2016 there were 98 clubs and by the beginning of 2017 there were more than 100 clubs.

Many new clubs have been established, but many have also stopped operating. Discussing this issue, People's Artist Hong Luu - Director of the Center for Preservation and Promotion of Nghe An's Folk Heritage shared: "In general, the folk singing movement in our province is developing unevenly. Apart from some areas such as Vinh City, Anh Son, Hung Nguyen... where the movement is flourishing, in some other localities, the movement has become quiet. To continue to preserve and promote folk heritage, it requires authorities at all levels and local people to pay more attention and invest more."

Huy Thu