Bay Area Fil-Am Artists Wowed Audience at the Vietnamese Lunar New Year Festival

Chúc mừng năm mới – that’s “Happy New Year” in Vietnamese as the community celebrates “Tet”, or Lunar New Year — an important occasion to the Vietnamese culture. The 32nd Annual Vietnamese Tet Festival was held on February 1 & 2, 2014  at the Santa Clara Fairgrounds in San Jose, CA. Though a bit cloudy and with slight rain over the weekends, the event was attended by at least 20,000 people.

This year, the organizers of this Festival had reached out to the non-Vietnames groups in the community for cultural performance. The Filipino group, through Power ng Pinoy TV Program, has coordinated this effort to include some of  the Filipino community’s most talented artists.

The Vietnamese audience was wowed by performances from the following artists: pop music sang by 12 year-old Mika Gorospe who is also a model and actress from Milpitas; 15-year-old Martha Santos of Daly City; and Liezl Torres, a 17-year-old  senior student from Fremont, CA.  Showcasing the cultural dance is a group of younger Fil-Ams from Johnny Veloso’s Mabuhay Folkloric Society. The group also did a modern hip-hop fusion dance. Finally, another well-known Bay Area performer, Ron Quesada, captivated the audience with his Kulintronica music. By fusing this ancient Filipino gong instrument (called “kulintang”) with modern electronic dance music, Ron has created a sound all his own that he calls “Kulintronica”. With the release of his single “Calling My Name” now on iTunes he is preparing to tour and release his debut album in 2014.

“We are very thankful to the Filipino community,”says Mylinh Pham, one of the organizers of the Vietnamese Tet Festival event.

The Philippines has always been part of our nation’s history. The Filipinos had accommodated a lot of Vietnamese people during their escape from communism in the early 70s. I myself had lived in Bataan along with my family. That’s why we had been very thankful for the Filipino group and we love them to perform at this event.

Aside from the Filipinos, the event also showcased performances from the Hispanic community and other Asian ethnic groups.

Power ng Pinoy is proud to have been the instrument that connected our Filipino talents with the Vietnamese community. Promoting our culture is one of the goals of Power ng Pinoy.

In Power ng Pinoy, we bring you our best to help you be the best you can be. Meanwhile, come share your stories with us on facebook (facebook.com/powerngpinoy). Tell us what inspires or motivates you to reach for your own stars. Because nothing is impossible,  as long as you plan ahead, pray hard, and work even harder.  And if you do well, help others to do well, too.  Dahil ‘Yan ang Power ng Pinoy!

(For more information about the Power ng Pinoy show please visit www.powerngpinoy.tv)