Jung Wono: "Seongsu-dong Will Become a Symbolic City of Seoul in 10 Years"

Cultural and Creative Industry Festival 'Creative X Seongsu' Kicks Off
411 Companies Participate Across Seongsu-dong Until the 21st
"A Driving Force for a Sustainable Seongsu-dong"

"The future of Seongsu-dong will be a place where the cultural and creative industries flourish. To make this happen, the district office has created a cultural and creative industry festival called 'Creative Seongsu' in collaboration with businesses, local creators, and the Seongdong Cultural Foundation."

The third annual '2025 Creative X Seongsu' is being held across Seongsu-dong, Seongdong District, Seoul, for a week until the 21st. At the opening ceremony and luncheon held at S Factory in Seongsu-dong on the 18th, Seongdong District Mayor Jung Wono told reporters, "Last year, Creative X Seongsu attracted 165,000 visitors and generated an economic impact of 82.7 billion won, which is more than 130 times the 640 million won budget invested by the district. In ten years, Seongsu-dong will become a symbolic city of Seoul, like Manhattan in New York."

Jung Wono, mayor of Seongdong District, is greeting a robot at the opening event of '2025 Creative X Seongsu' held on the 18th at S Factory in Seongsu-dong, Seongdong District, Seoul. Provided by Seongdong District.

Now in its third year, Creative X Seongsu is a public-private partnership event. This year's festival theme is "Creative Zeitgeist," featuring about 100 programs across 13 fields. Major programs include the CT Fair (Culture and Creative Industry Fair), Play Seongsu, Seongsu Art Fair, Beauty Seongsu, Investment Seongsu, and Tasty Seongsu. This year, 411 companies are participating.

The flagship CT Fair showcases immersive, cutting-edge technology-based content such as a simulated runway where participants become fashion models through virtual outfits, humanoid robot walking demonstrations, and music visualization video showcases. The urban escape room game 'Play Seongsu' is the most popular program, with over 3,000 advance ticket holders, making it a potential candidate for the Guinness World Records.

The newly added 'Beauty Seongsu' discovers small business owners in the K-beauty sector, hosts a brand pitching competition, provides product development support worth a total of 60 million won, and offers investment connections of up to 100 million won. 'Investment Seongsu' operates as an open investment platform where startups, venture capitalists, and policymakers can network, with actual investment matching also possible.

'Tasty Seongsu,' featuring local Seongsu-dong chicken brands and about 70 F&B establishments, introduces the area's food and beverage culture through chicken and beer parties and discount events. Other programs such as Fashion Seongsu, Music Seongsu, Webtoon Seongsu, Local Seongsu, Craft Seongsu, and Film Seongsu each offer their own unique characteristics.

Through this festival, Seongdong District aims to establish a sustainable platform where businesses, content creators, and residents can grow together based in Seongsu-dong. This also serves as an experimental model for the 'Seongsu Town Management' system, a public-private-resident joint management initiative introduced in June.

Jung Wono, mayor of Seongdong District, said, "Creative X Seongsu is a festival that concentrates the creative energy generated by creative industry companies, cultural artists, and residents coming together, and it will become a driving force for building a sustainable Seongsu-dong."