Muan-gun Holds Summer Signature Festival 'Muan Lotus Festival' Online

From the 18th to the 22nd for 5 days... Broadcast via YouTube and festival homepage

The Hoesan Baekryeonji, the largest natural habitat of white lotuses in East Asia, spanning over 100,000 pyeong / ? Asia Economy

[Muan＝Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Oh Hwan-joo] Muan County, Jeollanam-do (Governor Kim San) announced on the 6th that the 24th Muan Lotus Festival, a representative summer festival, will be held as a non-face-to-face online festival for five days from the 18th to the 22nd due to concerns over the spread of COVID-19.

The Muan Lotus Festival is held at Hoesan Baekryeonji, the largest natural white lotus habitat in East Asia, covering about 100,000 pyeong, and has been highly popular among many tourists every year as a festival to beat the heat and enjoy summer.

This year, due to the sharp increase in COVID-19 confirmed cases and the elevation of social distancing levels, the festival will be conducted entirely online.

Muan County has established online platforms for festival operation, including the YouTube channel (Muan Lotus TV) and the festival homepage. An online broadcasting studio will be set up on the main stage at Hoesan Baekryeonji, and various performances and experiential events will be produced without an audience and broadcast live on YouTube.

The festival’s representative program, ‘Lotus Letter from Muan (on),’ will deliver hometown news via video to beloved people such as family, classmates, and hometown friends living away from home. About 30 teams and over 70 residents, including sons enlisted in the military, elementary school classmates, children working hard at construction sites under the scorching heat, and sons studying in the United States, will participate and share their stories on YouTube. Although they cannot meet in person due to COVID-19, it is expected to provide comfort to everyone through online communication.

Other programs include the opening celebration performance featuring Kim Dong-myeong, Hyun Jin-woo, and Park Joo-hee; the Lotus Cooking Class where Chef Lee Won-il teaches cooking using lotus root and sweet potatoes, Muan’s representative agricultural specialties, in real time; street performances set against the beautiful Hoesan Baekryeonji; a moonlight concert held at night to escape the heat; a prenatal music concert providing music and childcare information beneficial for expectant mothers, symbolizing the lotus as a symbol of fertility; the Teen Teen Festival for youth; and the Lotus Song Festival created with citizen participation.

Additionally, anyone can safely enjoy at home making Baekryeon lanterns by decorating hanji lantern tools colorfully and writing messages of hope and overcoming COVID-19, and the Pumba experience where participants receive Pumba tools, make costumes, and follow Pumba videos.

Furthermore, the county will operate healing yoga classes for the whole family with explanations by famous yoga YouTuber Seoyeon (Ppangneu) against the backdrop of Hoesan Baekryeonji, and YouTuber Edmer will introduce every corner of Hoesan Baekryeonji and showcase Muan’s representative delicacy, octopus mukbang, producing content that promotes the region through the festival.

During the festival, live commerce will be operated four times to promote and sell Muan’s agricultural specialties such as sweet potatoes, onion jam, and mixed grains sets nationwide. Especially, on the 21st, during the sweet potato harvest season, Chef Lee Won-il will appear as a show host to share cooking methods using fresh Muan sweet potatoes and sell them.

The county has launched festival SNS (Instagram, Facebook) and is running YouTube subscription and comment events before the festival to attract nationwide interest and is making every effort to widely promote the Muan Lotus Festival.

Governor Kim San said, “Although the previous online Hwangto Mudflat Festival greatly contributed to promoting Muan nationwide, it was regrettable that there was somewhat insufficient interest and participation from residents. This time, we will significantly increase programs that allow residents and tourists to directly participate and enjoy by utilizing various online media, and focus on selling our county’s agricultural specialties to hold a festival that helps the local economy.”

Muan=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Oh Hwan-joo ohj1358@asiae.co.kr

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