New Year's Eve Bell-Ringing Event Tonight... 100,000 People at Bosingak and Gwanghwamun

New Year's Celebration Performances at Libraries and Street Shows
Public Transportation Extended Until 2 AM

From 11 PM on December 31, 2023, the last day of the year, until 1 AM the next day, a large-scale New Year's Eve bell-ringing and countdown event will take place around Bosingak and Sejong-daero in Jongno-gu, Seoul. The bell-ringing event at Bosingak has been a representative New Year's celebration held continuously for 70 years since 1953.

One hour before the bell-ringing, at 11 PM, a 40-minute variety of pre-performances and a parade will be held along the approximately 400-meter stretch from Bosingak to Sejong-daero. Then, at midnight marking the start of the New Year, a total of 22 participants, including Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, 12 citizen representatives, and 6 global influencers, will ring the New Year's Eve bell 33 times at Bosingak.

The 2019 'Jeya Bell' ringing event. [Image source=Yonhap News]

The citizen representatives include Yoon Do-il, a hero who discovered and rescued a bleeding woman who had collapsed during a stabbing incident at Seohyeon Station in Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi Province, in August; Kim Min-young, who saved a basic livelihood security recipient elderly person collapsed outside her optical shop; Park Kang-bin, who became a mentor for youth preparing for independence after aging out of child protection; and Kim Jeong-ja, the oldest test-taker of the 2024 College Scholastic Ability Test. In addition, radiologist Park Sang-woo, Baek Nam-moon, the second-generation representative of Shinshin Wedding Hall, the bereaved family of the late Professor Joo Seok-jung of the Department of Thoracic Surgery at Seoul Asan Medical Center, hearing-impaired table tennis player Lee Chang-jun, and Argentine train engineer Albiol Andres will also participate in the bell-ringing event.

To expand the bell-ringing event into a global New Year's celebration with people around the world, the city invited six global influencers participating in the Seoul Economic Promotion Agency's '2023 SeoulCon' to the bell-ringing event. Among them are Kika Kim from Kazakhstan, who has over 51.51 million subscribers on her YouTube channel, and Anusakasen from India, with 49.32 million subscribers, who will promote the charm of Seoul to their global audiences.

Immediately after the bell-ringing, a 12-meter-diameter structure representing the sun, called the 'Midnight Sun,' will rise on Sejong-daero. This will dramatically depict the moment when darkness fades and the new year dawns. Following this, a New Year's celebration performance will begin on the Sejong-daero countdown stage. The contemporary dance group Ambiguous Dance Company and idol groups ZeroBaseOne, ENHYPEN, THE BOYZ, and Oh My Girl will welcome the New Year with K-Dance and K-Pop. The performance can be freely viewed on-site on the day without prior registration.

With an expected crowd of about 100,000 people, roughly double last year’s attendance, the city plans to implement thorough safety management to ensure all citizens can enjoy the New Year's celebration safely. The city and Jongno-gu will deploy about 1,100 safety personnel, including staff, traffic controllers, and safety managers, approximately twice the number from last year.

To allow convenient and comfortable viewing of the countdown scenes outside Bosingak, live broadcasts will be simultaneously aired from Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Jung-gu and Sejong-daero, as well as on Seoul City's YouTube channel 'Live Seoul.' The police will deploy about 2,490 officers, including 450 from Jongno and Namdaemun police stations and 34 riot police units. To prepare for emergencies such as terrorism, special forces will be stationed at six locations, and in cooperation with Seoul Metro, crowd control will be conducted at subway stations expected to be crowded, such as Jonggak Station and Gwanghwamun Station.

For safe event management, subway Line 1’s Jonggak Station will be passed without stopping from 11 PM on the day until 1 AM the next day. Gwanghwamun Station will have its entrances controlled between midnight and 2 AM on January 1, 2024, if congestion occurs, encouraging dispersal to nearby stations. Illegal parking and stopping near the event venue will be strictly monitored, and vehicles that do not comply with on-site guidance will be towed immediately.

To ensure safe return home after the event, subway and bus services will be extended until 2 AM. For subways, a total of 173 additional runs will be operated across Lines 1 to 9, the Ui-Sinseol Line, and the Sillim Line. Last train times vary by line and destination, and especially trains bound for Gyeonggi and Incheon mostly end service before midnight, so it is advisable to check last train departure times in advance. City buses will also extend their last service times, but unlike previous years, considering that road control will continue until 7 AM on January 1, 2024, only 38 routes with stops near the event venue on temporary detour routes will have extended service.

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