A National Festival of Culture to be Held at Seoul This May

A National Festival of Culture to be Held at Seoul This May

The Coex MICE Cluster Committee announced that C-Festival 2016, Coex’s largest cultural festival will be held from May 4-8 this year at the Coex Convention and Exhibition Center in Seoul. The festival will be a colorful collage of cultural programs that represents the diverse backgrounds of Coex’s guests. More than a million and half people, including a large number of foreign delegates, are expected to attend.

Located in Samseong-dong, both Coex and the rest of the World Trade Center site have been decorated for the event, which will be the biggest of its kind in Seoul.

According to Korea Industrial Development Institute (KID), a whopping 2,350,000 people visited C-Festival last year. With a massive turnout, the festival helped generate 232.489 billion won in production, 47.775 billion won in income, and 14.687 billion won in tax revenues. It also helped in induced engagement of 1688 people. The festival also helped to create 1,688 jobs.

Although this year’s event will be shorter than last year’s, the expected economic impact will be around 150 billion won. The organizers expect around 1.5 million people to visit the festival. The overlap with Labor Day in China, and the richer content of this year’s event, is expected to attract a wider audience mix, including foreign visitors. 

C-Festival will open with the Seoul World Costume Festival, on May 4 where the Korean Culture Association, ambassadors, and diplomats from 40 countries will participate wearing their respective traditional costumes.

On May 5, which is marked as Children’s Day, the C-Parade and the Mega Balloon Parade will see participants march along Yeongdong-daero starting from Kyunggi High School and heading toward Samseong Station.

The festival will close on Sunday, May 8^th with a grand finale held at Yeongdong-daero, with an array of stunning performances. Audiences will be enthralled by the likes of K-POP singers, including PSY, Winner, IKON, and I.O.I aka Produce 101.

 “Last year’s festival provided us with the opportunity to identify the potential and possibility for success of the Korean version of Edinburgh festival”, said Mr. Bo-Kyung Byeon, the Chairman of the Steering Committee and the President of Coex. “We will promote C-Festival as a landmark cultural event that will contribute to the globalization of Korea as well as expand the service industry and stimulate economic growth.”

C-Festival Visitors and Economic Impacts: