Vietchella: When Coachella meets Vietnamese culture

By Marisol Camargo

Blog Content Contributor

San Marcos—Texas State University’s Vietnamese Student Association is organizing an event to support the Rock Paper Scissors Children’s Fund for their philanthropy project. 2024 is their revival year.

The Vietnamese Student Association (VSA) is a student organization at Texas State University. Their aim is to raise cultural awareness and appreciation of Vietnamese culture among students.

VSA has not been able to do this event since 2019, and this year, they are going big for the revival of Vietchella. COVID shut down everything, and with that, VSA’s opportunity to collect funds for organizations.

Rock Paper Scissors Children’s Fund supports after-school programs for girls in Vietnam. The organization will supply them with bikes and provide a safe space for their activities.

Their primary focus is helping girls, because they want to create future role models and an inclusive society for them as well. They also cater their summer programs for boys, but tutoring, bikes, art and music programs are dedicated to girls.

Tin Le is the vice president of VSA. Le is responsible for organizing the events for VSA and more specifically, Vietchella. “Your ticket goes a long way, not only to donate proceeds to Vietnamese children in Vietnam, but it also goes to the event and the funding for that,” said Le.

The success of this event heavily depends on the number of attendees and the donations made. VSA has yet to set a goal of donations to reach, but they encourage people to buy their tickets and enjoy the festival. The more engagement with the festival, the better recognition, and funds for the Rock Paper Scissors Children’s Fund.

Le and Remy describe this event as impactful and exhilarating. “It’s going to be very revolutionary to impact Vietnamese representation and also impactful to the cause that we have for this year,” said Le.

Remy is the auxiliary chair of VSA and is responsible for booking performers for Vietchella. There will be around eight or nine performances. Performers will come from all around Texas, including The University of Texas at San Antonio, Austin and Dallas, as well as the University of Houston and more. “It’s not necessarily a focus on Vietnamese culture. We’re more about showcasing the talent that Texas State has to offer,” said Remy.

The performances will include dances, singers, and songwriters. Performers are not all Vietnamese but participate in the same cause. It’s time to appreciate college students from Texas and allow them to showcase their talents “It’s probably one of the biggest things we have ever done in a long time,” said Remy.

The theme and attire for Vietchella is Western ethereal. The event supports a Vietnamese organization that will be catering food and showcasing a variety of talents. For the cherry on top, attendees get to be creative with their outfits. “I’m looking forward to attendees dressing up in their little cowboy yeehaw outfits,” said Remy.

For more information about the event, follow them on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/txstvsa/

For more information about Rock Paper Scissors Children’s Fund, visit https://www.rockpaperscissorschildrensfund.org

For more information about Texas State events, visit https://alumni.txstate.edu/events/