'Climate Crisis! Respond'... 2024 Gangbuk Environment Festival Held

June 1st at Bukseoul Dream Forest West Gate Plaza, from 10 AM to 4 PM
Slogan 'Earth's SOS, Respond Gangbuk' Building Consensus for Carbon Neutral Daily Life Practices
31 Resident Participation Experience Booths Operated... Abundant Family Experience Programs

Gangbuk-gu, Seoul (Mayor Lee Soon-hee) announced that the 2024 Gangbuk Environment Festival for carbon neutrality practice, titled "Climate Crisis! Respond," will be held on June 1st at the West Gate Plaza of Bukseoul Dream Forest. The slogan for this year’s first-ever Gangbuk Environment Festival is "Earth's SOS, Respond Gangbuk."

The Gangbuk Environment Festival is an event organized to form a consensus among residents for practicing carbon neutrality in daily life and to promote voluntary participation in response to the global climate crisis. Visitors can recognize the seriousness of the climate crisis and directly experience green living through various experiential booths and programs.

First, the pre-event starting at 10:40 AM will feature performances on stage by the youth dance club of the Gangbuk Youth Center and the Gangbuk-gu Boys and Girls Choir. The main event will include participants such as the Seongbuk Gangbuk Office of Education, Gangbuk-gu Chamber of Commerce, Lotte Department Store Mia Branch, Housewives Environmental Gangbuk Association, and elementary and middle school students, who will perform a carbon neutrality performance.

Additionally, visitors can watch an environmental puppet show themed on what happens when carelessly discarded waste flows into rivers, performances by the youth band of the Gangbuk Youth Center, and the Seoul street performance "Guseok Guseok Live."

From 10:30 AM to 4:00 PM, resident participation experiential programs will be operated across 31 booths in 5 categories. Participants include the Gangbuk Youth Center Environmental Club, Seorabeol Middle School Environmental Club, Housewives Environmental Gangbuk Association, Gangbuk Village Garden, Hyundai Motor Company, and Seoul Arisu Headquarters.

Booths themed on carbon reduction will feature a solar power rest zone where visitors can charge their mobile phones using solar power generators, renewable energy experiences to learn about hydrogen cars and jump rope kinetic energy, rice planting experiences using water bottles, and making home smart farms.

Recycling-themed booths offer toy recycling experiences and education on recycling broken toys, as well as junk art activities where visitors can cut snack bags to create pictures. Other hands-on activities include making wallets from discarded banners, eco-bags, eco-friendly mobiles and notebooks, eco-friendly soap, bracelets from old jeans, and sea glass necklaces.

In the low-carbon play theme zone, visitors can enjoy 10 types of non-powered wooden toys, 3 carbon neutrality board games, bicycle generator play, and endangered species dalgona making, all providing fun ways to appreciate the importance of the environment.

The low-carbon business zone allows visitors to view and test drive electric and hydrogen cars, and see waste cooking oil collectors, electric two-wheelers certified as green products, eco-friendly diapers, and ventilation purifiers.

There is also an Arisu promotion booth offering free Arisu beverages to those who bring tumblers, as well as a photo exhibition and photo zone showcasing award-winning works from the Environment Love Contest hosted by the Korea Environment Corporation.

The district aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030 compared to 2018 levels and plans to establish a mid- to long-term carbon neutrality basic plan by September. It is promoting eco-friendly projects throughout the district administration, including LED distribution projects for low-income households, eco-mileage programs, and expansion of electric vehicle charging facilities.

For climate crisis education and promotion, the district is implementing the "Carbon Neutral Life Practice Movement," conducting environmental puppet shows and Green Dream Tree environmental classes targeting future generations such as infants, elementary, and middle school students.

Meanwhile, the "2024 Recycling Sharing Resource Circulation Festival" will also be held on the same day from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM at the Wolf Plaza of Bukseoul Dream Forest. The festival features sharing and exchanging reusable secondhand goods and upcycling-themed experiential booths such as making name tags from old jeans, shell hand mirrors, and sea frames.

The resource circulation festival includes campaign activities for resource circulation practice, distribution of shopping bags made from discarded banners to visitors, and an exchange program where bringing 20 used batteries allows visitors to exchange them for one new set of batteries (2 pieces) while supplies last.

Lee Soon-hee, Mayor of Gangbuk-gu, said, "To respond to the climate change crisis, the practice of carbon-neutral living by each resident is most important. I hope all residents actively participate in the carbon reduction lifestyle movement by learning various ways to practice carbon neutrality at the Gangbuk Environment Festival."