From September 7, Neighborhood-Specific Village Festivals Held Simultaneously
Customized Events Planned Directly by Residents, Enhancing Satisfaction from Festival Venues to Activities
Nowon, Rising as a Cultural City, Upgrades the Level of Neighborhood Cultural Events!
Nowon-gu, Seoul (Mayor Oh Seung-rok) announced that it will hold the '2024 Dong Village Festival' from September 7 to November 2.
Since its first introduction in 2015, the 'Dong Village Festival,' celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, is a resident-led festival where residents autonomously plan and promote the entire preparation process, including location and program selection. Except for 2020 and 2021, when the festival could not be held due to COVID-19, the festival has reached its 8th edition, and residents evaluate that the festival's completeness is gradually maturing.
As a result of repeated planning and evaluation based on the four main focuses of attractions, food, activities, and goods, the number of participants in 2023 reached about 37,000. This is an 89% increase compared to the previous year.
This year as well, neighborhood private festival promotion committees have been formed months in advance to prepare the village festivals. The festival promotion committees have been discovering local cultural content that reflects each neighborhood’s symbolism, historicity, and cultural characteristics, and have been considering effective ways to attract interest.
The Wolgye 2-dong village festival, which holds the unique historicity of the Choansan Burial Mounds, uses Biseokgol Neighborhood Park as its stage, offering traditional play experiences and the Choansan Mountain Spirit Ritual, and provides attractions with a parade by the marching band of Yeomgwang High School, a local pride.
Sangye 1-dong’s 'Hanaro Festival' maximizes the resources of the ‘Administrative Complex Town,’ where various public administrative services are concentrated. Facilities located in the neighborhood such as Madeul Health Center, Surak Senior Welfare Center, Youth Counseling Welfare Center, and Northern Comprehensive Social Welfare Center all participate in the event venue, providing residents from all walks of life with opportunities to experience necessary services.
Sangye 5-dong, preparing the 'Ganchon Harmony Festival,' chose the baseball stadium at Suraksan Sports Town, a new local landmark, as the event venue. The wide space, combined with the beautiful sunset and music against the backdrop of Suraksan Mountain, evokes the emotion of the 'Suraksan Sunset Concert.'
Additionally, Gongneung 2-dong’s 'Harmony Festival' planned a special program called ‘Slow Mailbox’ using postcards from Hwarangdae Railroad Park, where participating residents can send postcards filled with memories again in January 2025.
While the 19 neighborhoods compete in good faith to plan their events, the district has significantly increased administrative support. The subsidies provided to each neighborhood through the Cultural City Division have expanded from 3 million won per neighborhood in 2015 to 7 million won this year. In addition, sign language interpretation fees are supported for all neighborhoods to assist residents with communication disabilities, and stage installation costs are provided to neighborhoods that need to set up separate temporary stages at event venues.
Meanwhile, the continuous renovation of aging parks throughout Nowon-gu has laid the foundation for providing pleasant and convenient festival venues. Parks such as Gongneung-dong Neighborhood Park, Golmaeul Neighborhood Park, and Galmal Neighborhood Park, where the Dong festivals will be held this time, have been remodeled since 2020 to create environments suitable for cultural events along with playground facilities.
Oh Seung-rok, Mayor of Nowon-gu, said, “I feel proud of the residents’ passion as I watch the changes in the Dong festivals, which have grown by breaking the perception that neighborhood festivals are small and uninteresting,” and added, “We will continue to spare no support so that the residents themselves can raise the level of cultural city Nowon.”
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
