Hi Seoul Fest 2009

Colorful events to kick-off May 2-10 to show Seoul's past, present and future with exciting, merry performances including concerts at palaces in Seoul

The Seoul Metropolitan Government will hold "Hope, Sharing Hi Seoul Festival 2009," the 7th annual event, from May 2-10 with the theme of palace, or 'gungg in Korean, regularizing the period of the colorful event to start annually from the first Saturday in May in order to secure the identity of the spring festival, organizers of the event said. Seoul City will produce the event with the help of the Seoul Cultural Foundation.
The city decided to make the event as colorful and as merry as possible by selecting the color of the pink blossom as the official color of the festival as a symbol for the rollicking spring and hope for the year. In the Seoul Plaza will be built a replica of a large royal palace, the Palace of May, as a landmark of the festival.
The May merriment will start with a parade strewn with all kinds of spring flowers, the "Pink Blossom Way," and highlights of the spring festivity include five major palaces in Seoul as a symbol for sharing the cultural legacy, Cheonggyecheon Stream, as a symbol for sharing the present and Seoul Plaza as a symbol for future hopes, with all of the programs filled with the excitement that only Seoul can provide, organizers of the event said.
They said many Seoul citizens will be invited to take part in the events as they want to cut the costs and yet make the events as merry and colorful as they can be so that everyone may enjoy them, both participants and spectators.
They said the slogan for the festival will read "Spring in Seoul, Unfurled with Hope," and the color pink will be everywhere the events take place, as the color is a symbol for the spirit of a warm life. The pink color is hoped to make the festival an occasion for filling the hearts of Seoul citizens with a new hope and energy.
The festival this year will have a deeper meaning than just a spring festival, as it will stress Seoul's palaces, the global cultural legacy, as its identity. The annual event will automatically take place on the first Saturday in May beginning this year so that Seoul citizens and foreign visitors will remember the date and look forward to the event every year and come and enjoy Seoul.

















The Palace of May will be the landmark structure, made of dragons flying into the sky, which will be built on Seoul Plaza. Architect Chang Yun-kyu will design the structure to symbolize the environmentally friendly Seoul with ribbons made with fabric some 200 meters long blowing in the spring wind as if the dragons are flying to heaven. The palace will have dragon-shaped screens to shield the kings from the sun. In this case, the kings will be Seoul citizens participating in the festival.
Many events are scheduled to take place at the May Palace including the opening and closing ceremonies for the festival, an "8-color Dance Fest" and an "8-color Play Yard" during the nine-day festival. Seoul Plaza will be turned into a stage for various exciting and merry events filled with passion brought on by spring fever. Organizers expect all participants will enjoy the event and recharge themselves with new energy needed to carry on with their everyday lives.
The event to open the festival is the Pink Blossom Road, which will show Seoul's past, present and future, and all of the citizens participating in the event will open the Palace of May to kick off the Hi Seoul Festival. The event will be held in the evening for the first time to allow participants to join the parade, instead of just watching it from the side of the streets, as if it were a carnival with flower blossoms floating everywhere in big waves.
In the five largest palaces in Seoul, events will take place to tell the stories surrounding each palace, all built during the Joseon Dynasty (1395-1910), including Deoksu-gung Palace, Changgyeong-gung Palace and Gyeongbok-gung Palace, where kings ruled for nearly 600 years.
Cheonggyecheon Stream, an important landmark flowing through the center of the capital city, will also stage a number of great events under the theme of "Sharing Cheonggyecheon," including "Seoul where I Live," "Pink Blossom Sharing Marketplace," "Love of Coin Field" and "Your Concerts." These events are to be dedicated to telling the stories of Seoul mostly centered on the modern era as the titles of the events suggest. They start from the time when Korea was liberated following the Japanese defeat at the hands of the allied forces led by the United States military during the second World War. The events also include concerts of both classical music presented by symphony orchestras and pop music played by various pop music groups and singers to enliven the festival and to serve all types of music lovers, young and old.
Also scheduled for the Palace of May are the "8-color Dance Fest" and "8-color Play Yard," which are designed to boost the dreams for the future of Seoul residents.
Chairman Ahn Ho-sang of the Seoul Cultural Foundation, said, "We had difficulties in the past. But we built a great economy with bare knuckles, a feat hardly seen in history, in fact a great miracle. This Hi Seoul Festival will be so designed to recall our capacity to encourage 10 million Seoul residents to rise up to their tasks again in a festival of hope." The festival will be organized with a tight budget to join the national effort to spare expenses in many areas of national life to fight off the economic crisis sweeping the world. Seoul City annually held festivals year round, but this year it will scrap festivals in the summer and fall and the budget for the May festival will be halved and citizens will be allowed to participate in the event to make it more exciting and merry, the organizers said.
"Your Concerts" at "Sharing Cheonggyecheon Stream" will include performances by notable performers of the arts and cultural circles and a selected number of citizens, who successfully auditioned for the performances. The event is designed to relax the citizens, who are tired mentally and physically from working hard due to the economic downturn, and give them hope and courage.
Also on the schedule are a number of events to show Seoul's beauty spots. At Kyunghee Palace will be a performance of the musical "Empress Myungsung" about the life of the wife of the last King of the Joseon Dynasty who was murdered by Japanese ninjas in the early part of the 20th century, and an old palace musical "Daejangum" for three weeks from May 1. Also on the schedule are the Seoul Spring Chamber Concerts, the Earth Village Performance and Tightrope Walking on the Han River, among other exciting events. nw

A huge crowd at a symphony concert held at Deoksu Palace during the 2008 Hi, Seoul Festival.

(Photos above) Scenes from past Hi, Seoul Festival with many foreign tourists enjoying various events in the festival including an arm wrestling competition and reenactment of traditional Korean events.