Festival «Võ thuật quốc tế Hà Nội 2026» (international martial arts)

   For three evenings, the walled compound that Vietnamese emperors once ruled from turns into an open-air arena. Fighters from Europe, Africa, China and Korea will share the ground with Vietnamese schools that normally train with nobody watching, right in the middle of the capital's oldest political address.

   Organisers expect 1,500 to 2,000 masters, students, coaches and athletes from Hanoi, other Vietnamese provinces and foreign delegations, with 10,000-15,000 spectators on site and more than 100,000 following the broadcasts. The programme runs under the motto "Hào khí Thăng Long - Tinh hoa võ Việt", roughly "the fighting spirit of Thăng Long, the essence of Vietnamese martial arts".

   The short version of what is on:

• — demonstrations and friendly bouts across traditional Vietnamese schools, Vovinam, Karate, Pencak Silat, Taekwondo, Wushu and MMA;
• — four open tournaments: Taekwondo, lion and dragon dance (lân sư rồng), Wushu and Vovinam;
• — an exhibition of weapons, gear and costumes, Vietnamese and international;
• — seminars on the history of Vietnamese martial arts and on building them into an industry;
• — folk games, knowledge contests and craft-village tours around the capital.

   The opening night is staged by director Hoang Cong Cuong (Hoàng Công Cường), who describes it as music, fan dance, bamboo dance and calligraphy woven into fighting forms. Its centrepiece is a fire ritual: a flame taken from Điện Kính Thiên, the throne hall of the old citadel, lights the festival torch.

   You do not need to train to get something out of this. Families get a rare chance to watch martial arts live and work out what separates Vovinam from Wushu. Practitioners get foreign delegations and Vietnamese hereditary schools on the same platform within the same hour. Short-stay visitors get Hanoi's main heritage site doing something other than being a museum.

   The setting is part of the point. Hoàng thành Thăng Long, the central sector of the Imperial Citadel, joined the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2010 and sits in Ba Đình, a few minutes on foot from the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum; excavated 11th-century palace foundations and an underground wartime command post share the same grounds.

   The festival is run by the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports (Sở Văn hóa và Thể thao Hà Nội) under a city People's Committee plan. Deputy director Pham Xuan Tai (Phạm Xuân Tài) told the launch press conference that the city is taking on four open tournaments and that organisation, logistics, security and medical cover are already in place.

   Entry is free at every venue, for the ceremonies and the tournaments alike. The competitive programme does spread across the city and beyond the three main days: Taekwondo at Nhà thi đấu phường Phú Diễn on 5-8 August, lion and dragon dance at the Thanh Oai hall on 6-8 August, Wushu at the Cầu Giấy hall on 11-14 August, with Vovinam dates still to be announced. The closing ceremony on 9 August moves out of the citadel to Vườn hoa Đền Bà Kiệu by Hoàn Kiếm Lake.

   If Vietnamese martial arts have reached you mainly through films so far, here is the version where you can hear the impact - and you can simply walk in.