Yeongam-gun Finalizes Basic Plan for Wangin Cultural Festival

Opening on the 30th of Next Month: "The Beginning of K-Culture, Wangin's Light"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Seo Young-seo] Yeongam-gun, Jeollanam-do held the Yeongam-gun Local Festival Promotion Committee on the 13th and finalized the basic plan for the ‘2023 Yeongam Wangin Culture Festival,’ a representative cultural tourism festival of Korea.

Yeongam-gun Local Festival Promotion Committee held a meeting.
[Photo by Yeongam-gun]

According to the county on the 15th, the Yeongam Wangin Culture Festival, held offline for the first time in four years due to the impact of COVID-19, will be held under the theme ‘The Beginning of K-Culture, the Light of Wangin’ for four days from March 30 to April 2 at the Wangin Park Historic Site in Gunseo-myeon, Sangdaepo History Park, and the Gurim Village area.

As it is a face-to-face festival held after a long time, various programs will be introduced and changed trends will be reflected to welcome tourists along with the new spring and cherry blossoms.

In particular, this festival plans to actively attempt new changes by strengthening existing advantages and adding diverse programs, showcasing a variety of 57 programs.

The county is focusing on operating a comfortable and safe festival centered on visitors and is making thorough preparations for the festival.

During the festival, when cherry blossoms will be in full bloom throughout the festival site, spaces containing the story of Wangin will be organized to enhance efficiency through a strategy of selection and concentration. The spirit of communication and coexistence of Wangin will be embodied as ‘light’ in the Wangin Park Historic Site and Gurim Village area, creating unique photo zones covering both day and night to attract tourists’ attention.

Additionally, new nighttime enjoyment programs such as Gurim Village Moonlight Night Walk and Wolchulsan Star Viewing Experience will be introduced to encourage visitors to stay longer.

Contents for attracting foreigners to foster the global festival have also been expanded. They plan to actively attract foreign tourists through foreign language specialized FM radio broadcasts and foreign travel agencies.

Furthermore, the festival will expand foreigner-customized content such as world traditional costume experiences, world folk performances, and foreigner-operated restaurants.

For a comfortable and safe festival centered on visitors, instead of celebrity and one-time consumptive events, tourist experiences and side events will be expanded, and the aesthetic degradation caused by parking at the entrance of the existing event site will be improved.

County Governor Woo Seung-hee said, “The 2023 Wangin Culture Festival is considered an intermediate stage evolving from a character festival to a content festival,” and added, “While we have focused on the figure ‘Wangin’ so far, now we need to create a content-centered story using the characters, types, and books that Wangin delivered, developing it into a festival with a clear identity and substance.”

He continued, “We will prepare a differentiated festival unique to Yeongam using our cultural tourism resources to promote regional economic development and increase tourist satisfaction,” and added, “We will make the best preparations during the remaining period for a safe and enjoyable festival.”

The Yeongam Wangin Culture Festival has been recognized as a representative festival with sustainability and competitiveness, such as being selected as a cultural tourism festival by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2020. It is expected to welcome tourists with upgraded programs through new changes in 2023, enhancing the status of Korea’s cultural tourism festivals.

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