The Show Goes on in HCMC

The historic and the modern live together in downtown Ho Chi Minh City. The Continental Hotel and municipal theater in front of a new glass tower.

As mentioned in an earlier post the Passengers loved staying at the Hotel Continental Saigon, not least because of its great location overlooking the old opera house. The grand edifice for the performing arts still operates as the municipal theater, but we did not know about their morning concert series. At about 7:00 am last Saturday we woke up to the sounds of a team setting up and testing microphones and speakers. This is nothing extraordinary in a southeast Asian city. In Singapore most companies believe they must erect a 200-watt sound system blasting techno-pop to simply pass out flyers.

Motorbikes zip past the facade of the municipal theater on a Saturday morning.

A little after 8:00 we decided to make our way downstairs to the hotel courtyard for breakfast, but we decided first to go outside and see in the daylight a bit of what we missed after arriving late the previous night. The constant motor-scooter traffic had already begun, but at the center of the bustle atop the theater steps sat a row of musicians dressed in bright silks and playing traditional instruments. Most amusingly, the setup of the performance had turned the chaos of the city to its advantage. Everyone was welcome to attend, and the surest way to find a seat -- park up your motorbike.  An improvised array of spectators had brought their own transport and furniture.  After this demonstration of city dwellers taking time for a bit of art and enjoying themselves in do-it-yourself fashion, we knew we would enjoy Ho Chi Minh City. 

A crowd gathers to watch an outdoor concert on a Saturday morning at the municipal theater in Ho Chi Minh City.

Musicians play under the caryatid columns of the municipal theater in HCMC.