Enjoy Tradition... Contest Venue Showcasing Folk Arts, 'Busan Folk Arts Competition' Held

May 12-13: Folk Arts Contest at Nam-gu Baegunpo Sports Park

Intangible Cultural Heritage Performances, 25 Teams of Youth and General Participants, Over 800 People

Busan City will hold the '2023 Busan Folk Arts Competition' from the 12th to the 13th at the artificial turf field in Baegunpo Sports Park, Nam-gu.

Poster for the 2023 Busan Folk Arts Competition.

This competition is organized to preserve and pass down the city’s intangible cultural assets and to widely promote the excellence of cultural heritage to citizens. Over the two days, about 800 participants from 25 teams will showcase intangible cultural assets and non-designated traditional folk performances.

▲ On the first day of the event, May 12, 348 participants from 10 youth teams will take part.

Leading the performances is the Dongnae Gomu team from Busan Arts High School, which represented Busan City and won the grand prize at the 63rd Korean Folk Arts Festival held last year in Gongju. Following them, nine teams including Hyehwa Girls’ Middle School’s Dongnae Hakchum, Dadae Elementary School’s Dadaepo Huri Sori, and Baeyoung Elementary School’s Busan Nongak will demonstrate the skills they have honed over time.

The schools participating in the competition are designated intangible cultural asset transmission schools by Busan City.

▲ On May 13, the general division competition will take place.

Starting with the performance of the Suyeong Jisinbalgi by the Suyeong Jisinbalgi Preservation Society, last year’s grand prize winner, 529 participants from 15 teams including Suyeong Nongcheong Nori, Dongnae Hakchum, and Busan Gobun Dorigeollip will present high-quality performances to the audience, making great efforts to preserve and pass down traditional folk arts of the Busan region despite difficult circumstances.

A city official stated, “After three years of cancellations and non-face-to-face formats due to COVID-19, this year’s event will be held as a public competition that citizens can enjoy together. We ask for many citizens’ attendance and support for the passionate performances by each preservation society and transmission school representative team, and hope everyone has a meaningful time enjoying and sharing our traditional cultural arts.”

The grand prize-winning teams in both the general and youth divisions of the competition will earn the right to represent Busan at the 64th Korean Folk Arts Festival to be held in Yeonggwang-gun, Jeollanam-do, this September.

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