Baek Jong-won Planned Seafood Festival Faces Harsh Criticism
Visitors Point Out Poor Food Taste and Management Issues
On the 21st of last month, Baek Jong-won announced that he would be hosting a festival in Tongyeong, saying, "It's fun. Trust me." [Photo source: Screenshot from the YouTube channel 'Baek Jong-won']
Baek Jong-won’s first seafood festival, 'Eobujangteo,' which he planned, ended on the 3rd, and netizens who visited the festival have been posting a series of 'dislike (negative) reviews.'
On the 21st of last month, Baek Jong-won announced through his YouTube channel that he would hold a festival in Tongyeong. The video showed the development and promotion of over 30 types of dishes, including anchovy fried rice rolls, sea squirt bibimbap, fried conger eel rice bowl, fried rockfish, oyster cutlets, and a full plate of oyster pancakes.
The Tongyeong Eobujangteo Festival was a seafood food festival jointly hosted by Baek Jong-won’s Theborn Korea and six local fisheries cooperatives, held from the 1st to the 3rd at the Tongyeong Triathlon Square. Although Baek Jong-won had previously held festivals with local governments and regional events, this was the first festival focused solely on seafood, raising expectations.
A review video of Tongyeong Fishermen's Market uploaded on the YouTube channel 'Yeohaengron'. [Photo by YouTube channel 'Yeohaengron' video capture]
However, on the first day of the festival, the typhoon 'Kong-rey' brought heavy rain to Tongyeong, creating adverse conditions. Tongyeong City and Theborn Korea did not install tents for safety reasons, so visitors had to eat their food in the rain. Visitors expressed dissatisfaction in comments, criticizing the organizers’ inadequate response and the lack of staff to manage the long waiting lines.
They posted comments such as "I trusted Baek Jong-won but was very disappointed," "We kept getting rained on while waiting for food," "How could they not set up even one tent?" "It was so bad I envy those who didn’t go," "This is the first time I’ve seen such a festival. If it’s going to be like this, don’t hold the festival again," and "Despite the rain forecast, the response was very inadequate," expressing their disappointment.
There were also criticisms about the quality of the food. On the 3rd, YouTuber 'Yeohaengron' posted a review video expressing disappointment after attending the Tongyeong Eobujangteo Festival. Yeohaengron said, "I made this video honestly because I couldn’t leave only positive reviews out of fandom," adding, "This festival was really the worst. Aside from the rain, the quality of the food was very poor." He continued, "There were noticeable shortcomings in the operation, and some people were so angry that they cursed," and expressed concern that "it might actually harm Baek Jong-won’s reputation."
During the festival, representatives of Tongyeong Eobujangteo shared real-time updates on the festival’s congestion and remaining food quantities via Instagram. However, complaints about inadequate responses continued, and on the second day of the event, Baek Jong-won reportedly visited the site in person to check on the complaints. After reviewing improvements, visitor dissatisfaction reportedly eased somewhat.
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