Sacheon’s Representative Cultural Festival, Goryeo King Hyeonjong Festival ... Changed to Sacheon Waryong Cultural Festival

Holding a Public Forum at City Hall Auditorium and Deciding on Name Change

Sacheon City, Gyeongnam is holding a public forum to discuss the renaming of its representative cultural festival.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Choi Soon-kyung] The representative cultural festival of Sacheon City, Gyeongnam, the ‘Goryeo Hyeonjong Daewang Festival,’ will be renamed to its former name, the ‘Sacheon Waryong Cultural Festival.’

Sacheon City held the ‘2022 Citizens’ Debate’ on the 26th at the city hall auditorium to gather opinions from citizens and experts regarding the adjustment of the name of Sacheon’s representative cultural festival.

The debate proceeded with a brief explanation of the background by the moderator, followed by a statement of purpose for holding the debate by Lee Woo-sang, Chairman of the Gyeongnam Tourism Expo Organizing Committee, then panelists’ opinions, citizens’ Q&A, and suggestions.

The debate focused on forming a consensus on the name of Sacheon’s representative festival and broadly discussed the problems of the existing festival and directions for improvement.

Panelists attending the debate, including Lee Byung-yoon, Honorary Professor at Gyeongnam Provincial Namhae College; Ji Jin-ho, CEO of Nonsan Cultural Tourism Foundation; Byun Cheol-hee, Research Fellow at Gyeongnam Research Institute; Gu Jeong-hwa, City Council Member; and Jeong Dae-hwan, Director of Sacheon Cultural Center, agreed that the content, specifically the killer content, is more important than the festival’s name.

In particular, citizens also offered constructive opinions, suggesting that rather than being fixated on the name, it might be worthwhile to consider changing it to a future-oriented theme in the long term.

The Sacheon City Council passed the ‘Agreement on the Adjustment of the Name of Sacheon’s Representative Cultural Festival,’ which was submitted after obtaining approval for the name change from the Sacheon Cultural Foundation Board of Directors, during the 266th extraordinary session.

As a result, next year, the Waryong Cultural Festival, which began in 1995 with the launch of the integrated Sacheon City by merging the Halla Cultural Festival of Samcheonpo City and the Suyang Cultural Festival of Sacheon City, will be seen again.

The 25th Sacheon Waryong Cultural Festival, under the subtitle ‘Waryong Embraces Goryeo Hyeonjong,’ is scheduled to be held on April 28, 2023.

A city official said, “We are satisfied that through this debate, we listened to citizens’ opinions and formed a consensus on adjusting the name of Sacheon’s representative cultural festival to ‘Sacheon Waryong Cultural Festival.’ We will strive to develop it into a festival that satisfies citizens and attracts many tourists through in-depth discussions with experts and festival organizing bodies.”

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