Namwon Chunhyang Festival, an Online Festival 'Body Far, Heart Close'

The 90th Chunhyang Festival: Non-face-to-face, Real-time Online, and Interactive Communication

Photo by Namwon City

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Nosik] The Chunhyang Festival Committee in Namwon City, Jeonbuk, announced that this year's Chunhyang Festival will be held as an online festival due to the continued spread of COVID-19.

On the 15th, according to the Chunhyang Festival Committee, a meeting was held the day before at the Chunhyang Culture and Arts Center (Small Theater) to discuss measures for holding the Chunhyang Festival in preparation for the spread of COVID-19.

At this meeting, the Chunhyang Festival Committee decided to convert the 90th Chunhyang Festival into an online festival and exchanged various opinions on preventing the spread of COVID-19 and detailed plans for the event.

Until now, the committee had postponed the Chunhyang Festival, originally scheduled for the first half of the year, to monitor the spread of COVID-19, but as the spread continued in the second half, it was judged that holding the festival in the traditional way would be difficult, leading to a change in the event plan.

Accordingly, the 90th Chunhyang Festival will be held from September 10 to 13 for four days, focusing on non-face-to-face, real-time online, and interactive communication to ensure the safety of citizens and tourists and maintain a clean Namwon.

First, the Chunhyang Festival Memorial Ceremony, which holds 90 years of history, will be conducted without an audience at the Chunhyang Shrine to continue the tradition. The entire ceremony process will be broadcast online through the Chunhyang Festival YouTube channel ‘Namwon Warak’.

The Chunhyang Selection Contest will accept applications until the 30th, and the finals will be held without an audience at the Chunhyang Culture and Arts Center, with the broadcast available for viewing. Strict quarantine measures will also be implemented during the preliminary judging and final preparations to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

This year’s newly prepared flagship brand performance, ‘Chunhyang is Alive,’ will be set against the backdrop of Gwanghallu Pavilion, with Ji Gihak (director) and Kim Baekcheon (music) participating. It is a high-quality musical performance starring famous celebrities, and only a limited number of audience members will be able to watch on-site through a lottery.

Additionally, this year’s Chunhyang Festival will introduce a new cultural and artistic performance, ‘Chunhyang Travels Namwon,’ to satisfy the craving for performances and promote Namwon tourism. The live performance will be held at eight beautiful tourist spots in Namwon (Namwon Yechon, Yeruwon, Kim Byungjong Art Museum, Honbul Literature Museum, Seodo Station, Herb Valley, Dongpyeonje Village, Mongsimjae).

After the performance, high-quality shows with re-edited sound and video will be available on the YouTube channel ‘Namwon Warak’.

The Namwon Festival channel ‘Namwon Warak’ is expected to serve as an important communication channel for the 90th Chunhyang Festival, acting as a tourism promotion channel that delivers everything from festival information to the small pleasures of Namwon.

In addition, the citizen participation event ‘Chunhyang Festival Memory Contest’ invites submissions of letters, photos, and stories containing memories related to the Chunhyang Festival, while the ‘Chunhyang Festival Logo Song Event’ allows entries through dance, singing, and musical instrument performances set to the logo song.

Yoon Youngbok, Vice Chairman of the Chunhyang Festival Committee, said, “A new trend in festivals is emerging in the COVID era,” and added, “We will carefully prepare promotional measures so that the online Chunhyang Festival can become a new opportunity.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.