Breaking battle «Break Out Bình Dương»

   This time the floor is not a club but an open square in the northern reaches of Ho Chi Minh City — the event plaza of a shopping centre that runs its own programme there. One day, two brackets, fifteen million dong in cash prizes and a spectator circle you can simply walk up to. If you have never watched a breaking battle from two metres away, a daytime open-air one is the easiest place to start.

   There are two categories. The open one is breaking 3 on 3: crews of three, an entry fee of 600,000 VND per team, 9,000,000 VND plus sponsor gifts for the winners and 3,000,000 VND for the runners-up. The kids bracket is 1 on 1 for dancers under 15: 150,000 VND per entrant, 2,000,000 VND for first place and 1,000,000 VND for second.

   The essentials
Format — breaking 3 on 3 in the open category and 1 on 1 for the under-15s
Host and site owner — Becamex Tokyu, the Vietnamese-Japanese joint venture behind Binh Duong New City (Thành phố mới Bình Dương)
Title partner — the Japanese energy drink Lipovitan; Panasonic Vietnam, Bunz Smash Burgers, Chateraise Vietnam and JCB Vietnam are also on the sponsor list
Not announced yet — judges, DJ and MC, the running order of the rounds and how crews sign up

   It suits street-dance people and the merely curious in equal measure. In the open air you can see how a crew answers the opponent's set, how the b-boys trade turns and hold the beat. The kids bracket adds a second storyline for families: children get to watch their own age group step into a real battle rather than a rehearsal.

   The venue is worth a word too. SORA gardens SC is the first shopping centre in Binh Duong New City, opened on 28 July 2023, with nearly 15,000 sq m of leasable space and an AEON supermarket as its anchor. Its signature feature is precisely that event plaza with a large LED screen, and parking takes some 2,500 vehicles. The organisers published the announcement in Vietnamese and Japanese at once, which fits a district where Japanese companies run everything from the master plan to the shop units.

   On admission for spectators the announcement says nothing: the sums above are competitor entry fees, not tickets, and free entry has not been declared either. There is no sign-up channel published for crews yet, so watch the event page for it. The organisers describe the whole thing as a culturally new format for Binh Duong.

   Come early if you want the front row of the circle — on an open square the best spot goes to whoever arrives first.