Weekend Myeongdong Craft Beer Festival and DJ Performance, Pokemon GO Comes to Dongdaemun

June 6-8, 2023 Myeongdong Beer Festival with Street Food

The Myeongdong Beer Festival will be held from the 6th to the 8th, starting at 1 PM, throughout the Myeongdong area. The photo shows last year's festival scene. (Photo by Jung-gu)

Jung-gu, Seoul (Mayor Kim Gil-seong) is capturing the hearts of tourists with special content, such as hosting a beer festival in Myeongdong and attracting the ‘Pok?mon GO City Safari Seoul’ to the Dongdaemun Tourism Special Zone.

The Myeongdong Beer Festival will be held from the 6th to the 8th, starting at 1 PM in the Myeongdong area. This year’s ‘2023 Myeongdong Beer Festival with Street Food’ showcases street food from Myeongdong’s shops and 40 types of craft beer. The content was selected through Jung-gu’s entry in the ‘Seoul Themed Tourism County Contest’ in July and is supported by the Seoul Tourism Foundation.

Eight craft beer manufacturers are participating, including Art Monster, Sch?fferhofer Grapefruit Draft Beer, Rodenbach Wine Beer, Platinum, Krameri, The Hand and Malt, Weizenhaus, and Jeju Beer.

The combination of craft beer and street food will be enhanced by hip-hop and DJ performances. On the 6th, DJs Suki, Joey, Reni B, and Ark will perform; on the 7th, DJs Freekey, Charming, Vax, and Shownee will take the stage; and on the 8th, 13 popular DJs including J1, Tamiz, Uni, Pureun, and L2k will energize the crowd.

A beer curation event analyzing beer preferences will also take place. Based on a diagnostic chart, participants can receive beer recommendations suited to their tastes and can take a beer preference test themselves by accessing a QR code on stand tables within the venue. To promote environmental protection, the district will operate the festival as an eco-friendly event by providing free rentals of reusable beer cups from Happy Habit, run by SK Telecom and the social enterprise Happy Connect.

The festival is sponsored by the Seoul Tourism Foundation, Myeongdong Tourism Special Zone Council, Alipay Plus, Hana Card, and Woori Bank. During the event, payments made with Alipay throughout Myeongdong will receive random discount coupons (up to 8,888 yuan off), and Alipay Plus payments will offer fixed-amount discount coupons based on the payment amount (up to 20,000 KRW off). Additionally, craft beer purchases made with Hana Card will be available at a 20% discounted price.

Meanwhile, ‘Pok?mon GO City Safari Seoul’ will land in the Dongdaemun Tourism Special Zone. Pok?mon GO is a location-based augmented reality mobile game enjoyed by catching Pok?mon while walking outdoors. On the 7th and 8th, anyone can participate in the Pok?mon GO special game while touring major Seoul landmarks. Jung-gu Hyundai Outlet Dongdaemun Branch will serve as the community hub welcoming game participants.

Jung-gu plans to promote the Jung-gu walking tour course and major tourist sites included in this online game course, and actively publicize the Dongdaemun Fashion Town area using Pok?mon-related YouTube channels. Popular YouTubers such as Ssambap TV with 210,000 subscribers and Kamen with 130,000 subscribers, along with many global YouTubers, are expected to participate.

Kim Gil-seong, Mayor of Jung-gu, said, “We expect the beer festival and the Pok?mon GO event to provide participants with special memories,” adding, “We also hope that the Myeongdong and Dongdaemun commercial districts will be further revitalized through these special events.”