Jangseong-gun Cancels 'Yellow Flower Festival' Due to COVID-19 Impact

Published 30 Sep.2021 17:08(KST)

[Jangseong=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Jo Hangyu] Jangseong-gun, Jeollanam-do, has decided to cancel the online Hwangryonggang Yellow Flower Festival, which was scheduled for the 1st of next month.

According to the county on the 30th, the Hwangryonggang Yellow Flower Festival, held since 2016, is a representative local festival of Jangseong.

This measure is due to the severe nationwide spread of COVID-19.

The county expects many visitors to come to Hwangryonggang in autumn and plans to operate a COVID-19 safety quarantine period.

The Yellow Flower Festival was held by residents planting and cultivating flowers themselves along the riverbank, which was once full of weeds.

Hwangryonggang, which was close to abandoned land, transformed into "the most beautiful flower river in Korea," achieving great success with over one million visitors for three consecutive years.

Last year, when COVID-19 spread nationwide, the Yellow Flower Festival was canceled, and proactive quarantine efforts were made.

This year, instead of an offline festival, a non-face-to-face online festival was planned, but due to the rapid increase in confirmed cases in the metropolitan area and other cities and counties, it was also abruptly canceled.

Yoo Doo-seok, the county governor, said, "The cancellation of the Yellow Flower Festival is an unavoidable decision to protect the health and safety of the residents. Since a large crowd is expected to gather to enjoy the one billion autumn flowers blooming along Hwangryonggang, we plan to operate a 'safety quarantine period' and make every effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19."

The county will have a safety quarantine period from the 1st to the 17th of next month and will guide visitors to Hwangryonggang on ▲safe calls ▲temperature checks ▲social distancing.

Additionally, four passage-type quarantine gates and 40 autonomous quarantine zones will be installed, and quarantine officers will be deployed at each site to intensively monitor compliance with quarantine rules.