The artistic programme “Xoe Thai— A Complete Circle of Love” will take place at 8pm on October 16 at Nghia Lo Ward Stadium in Lao Cai Province, opening the Muong Lo Culture and Tourism Festival 2026. The festival is a distinctive cultural and tourism event in Muong Lo, held annually to help promote the traditional cultural values of ethnic groups in Lao Cai Province.
This year’s festival, themed “The Essence of Xoe Thai — Colours of the Northwest”, will run from October 16 to 21. It holds special significance as it coincides with the fifth anniversary of Xoe Thai being inscribed by UNESCO on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Telling stories through the heritage of the Thai people
The opening artistic programme, “Xoe Thai — A Complete Circle of Love”, is associated with the name of female director Le Hai Yen, who has spent many years bringing the distinctive cultural beauty of different regions to major stages. She has also maintained a particularly close connection with Xoe Thai since the 2022 festival.
The programme comprises three acts: “Seeds of Love – Threads of Longing – Circle of Love”. It recreates the beauty of the daily life and customs of the Thai people through the symbolic love story of a black Thai young man and woman, weaving elements of Thai cultural heritage into their story.
Director Le Hai Yen said that the verse narrative “Xong chu xon xang” is to the Thai people what “The Tale of Kieu” is to the Vietnamese. It is not only a literary heritage and a beautiful, rich tradition of the Thai people, but also embodies the values of truth, goodness, and beauty, as well as humanistic values worth learning from. That is the core emotion behind this story — a love story that reaches beyond love itself to speak of the importance of community. The director hopes to make a small contribution, to add a modest voice to the effort to preserve these cultural treasures.
However, from the perspective of staging a festival, she said she would not reproduce the original work or bring it wholesale onto the stage. Instead, she drew inspiration from its aesthetic vision of love, creating a new story in which personal love overcomes challenges and is embraced by the entire community. The story carries forward the spirit of fidelity, waiting, overcoming adversity, and believing in a complete love, culminating in a happy ending.
This is also why the opening-night story is entitled “A Complete Circle of Love”. Here, the circle of love represents arms joining together, the life journey of the young couple, and the Xoe circle — the circle of the community — while “complete” signifies wholeness.
Alongside “Xong chu xon xang”, chief director Le Hai Yen has incorporated another element of Thai heritage into the programme: the Xai Peng love cord. Similar to the red thread of fate in Kinh culture, it symbolises a bond between two hearts and the love between a couple. For the Thai people, Xai Peng is an idea embodied in a cord bestowed by a Mo shaman on young men and women. It represents a bond that entwines them closely and durably, connecting two people in love.
The programme also features numerous cultural customs, ancient Xoe dances, and the use of the Thai language as the language of storytelling. The main characters are all members of the black Thai ethnic group, guiding the audience through each act.
I want the heritage of the Thai people to be told through their own language and art, rather than through a programme made by Kinh people about Thai culture.
Director Le Hai Yen
This time, musical theatre elements have also been given greater prominence. Whereas music played the leading role in previous programmes, “Xoe Thai — A Complete Circle of Love” combines drama and music more distinctly, with a cast of characters appearing throughout and a coherent storyline. The dialogue has been adapted into Khap Thai, also known as khap singing— a traditional folk-singing form that combines music and poetry among the Thai ethnic group. Vietnamese subtitles are provided, enabling audiences to follow the story while gaining a clearer appreciation of its indigenous cultural character.
“I want the heritage of the Thai people to be told through their own language and art, rather than through a programme made by Kinh people about Thai culture,” the female director said.
Ensuring accuracy and authenticity
The year 2026 marks a decade since director Le Hai Yen returned to the former Yen Bai area, now part of Lao Cai Province. It is also the third time she has staged a programme in Muong Lo. She calls it “where love begins”, a place that has brought her special emotions and inspiration throughout her artistic journey. This has also been a period of close engagement with Thai ethnic culture, during which she has learned more about it and developed an increasingly deep affection for the region.
Director Le Hai Yen said she had devoted considerable time to research to ensure accuracy in the stage performances recreating the culture and heritage of the black Thai people. “If enough time is devoted to learning and research, the resulting works can be sound and accurate,” she affirmed.
From 2019 to 2022, director Le Hai Yen spent many months alongside folk artisan Lo Van Bien, while he was still alive, listening to stories of the Thai people in order to immerse herself in their culture.
She believes that while much information can be found online, Thai culture requires extensive direct research into matters such as writing, clothing, and props, because black Thai communities in different areas have distinct customs and traditional dress.
My working principle is that before making something good, I must make sure it is right. No matter how good a work may be, if it is wrong, then I have wronged the community.
Director Le Hai Yen
“I have always been extremely careful when working with traditional and folk cultural elements. My working principle is that before making something good, I must make sure it is right. No matter how good a work may be, if it is wrong, then I have wronged the community,” the director said candidly.
The female director is consistently accompanied by village elders, village heads, cultural artisans, and cultural researchers. “I feel fortunate that the artisans and researchers have supported me. That is the first factor in helping us avoid mistakes,” Le Hai Yen said.
A unique artistic experience in Muong Lo
For director Le Hai Yen, the artistic experience of participants is always the top priority when she stages a programme. Technology and technical elements are there solely to serve that experience. She explained that if the story is the “soul” of the programme, the stage environment gives it its distinctive appearance. “Xoe Thai — A Complete Circle of Love” is staged as an immersive folk performance combining interactive 3D mapping technology, transforming the entire stadium into a vast Muong village.
With 24 high-powered 3D mapping projectors covering more than 3,000 square metres of the stadium, the programme unfolds like an indigenous stage epic featuring expansive community scenes. Images of towering mountain ranges and realistically designed props create the impression of an actual Muong village coming to life. Behind the layers of mountains are images of the moon and sun move, symbolising the transition between day and night, the passage of time and the journey of waiting.
Surrounding the stage are communities of artisans, performers, and local residents, while the stands above accommodate more than 10,000 spectators. As a result, audiences are not merely outside observers of a performance but are placed within a vibrant living cultural space.
Notably, the programme will feature the direct participation of folk artisans, more than 2,000 Thai ethnic people, and hundreds of artists and performers. They will not merely perform but also tell the cultural story of their own community through their love, pride, and attachment to their homeland and ethnic group.
For the first time, a grand Xoe dance scene will be staged as a large wedding in a Muong village, bringing together thousands of people who join the Xoe circle to offer their blessings to the young couple. Starting with the embrace of two people in love, the Xoe circle gradually expands, spreading into an embrace encompassing the entire community.
The female director said that putting together a programme featuring familiar layers of content and activities was not difficult. However, she always wanted to challenge herself to find something new and bring it to the stage.
“This is my third time returning for the festival. I would already be bored myself if I repeated what I had done before; repeating myself would mean moving backwards. Since I never want to repeat myself; I must always set new challenges for myself. We now have more technology and other forms of support, which can help us create something distinctive,” Le Hai Yen said.
