Gwangju City Cancels or Postpones 13 Scheduled Events Starting from the 31st

Mayor Kang Gijeong Orders Strengthening of Safety Management

Gwangju Metropolitan City Hall exterior view.

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced that it has canceled or postponed 13 events scheduled to be held from the 31st in connection with the Itaewon incident.

Gwangju City stated that during the national mourning period, unnecessary events will be canceled or postponed in principle, and even when events are held after the mourning period, on-site safety management will be strengthened to do its best to prevent safety accidents at event venues.

According to current law, festivals expected to gather more than 1,000 spectators at once, festivals held on mountains or water surfaces, and festivals using explosive materials such as fireworks are required to prepare a safety management plan and receive review from the jurisdictional autonomous district where the festival is held.

However, small-scale festivals gathering fewer than 1,000 people or naturally occurring festivals without organizers, like the Itaewon incident, may fall into safety management blind spots.

To address these blind spots, the city plans to recommend the preparation of safety management plans even for small-scale festivals not subject to legal safety management plan requirements, and if signs of naturally occurring festivals are identified, it will establish a joint response system with police, fire departments, and others to strengthen on-site safety management.

Park Namju, Director of the Citizen Safety Office of the city, said, “We will mobilize all the city’s capabilities to protect the precious lives and safety of citizens through more active and proactive safety management beyond the minimum legal safety management obligations.”

Meanwhile, Mayor Kang Kijeong of Gwangju held an emergency countermeasure meeting the day before and instructed follow-up measures.

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