The ‘Seoul World Fireworks Festival’, which had not been held for a while due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), was held for the first time in three years. One million citizens flocked to Yeouido to see the colorful fireworks that embroidered the sky.
The event was held under the theme of ‘We Hope Again’. It means comforting the daily life of citizens who are exhausted from the COVID-19 crisis and setting off a spark of dreams and hope once more. The fireworks festival, which started at 7:20 pm, lasted regarding 100 minutes. Three teams from Korea, Japan and Italy participated in this festival.
The Japanese team delivered a message of hope to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic with the work ‘Sky Full of Hope’, followed by the Italian team’s work ‘New World’, which means a new world with intense music. .
From 8:30 pm, the Korean team held a fireworks show with messages of hope and comfort under the theme of ‘We Hope Again – Counting the Stars’.
To this, netizens showed reactions such as “The Korean team is great”, “The finale is really cool”, and “I’ll go see it in Yeouido”, etc.
To see the fireworks festival on this day, citizens visited Yeouido Hangang Park early. About 40 tents for 3-4 people were set up on the lawn in front of the water taxi platform in Yeouido Hangang Park in Seoul from 9 am on the same day. Citizens who might not bring their tents sat on mats with their winter padded jackets and thick blankets they had brought. The lawns of Yeouido Hangang Park were already filled with tents and mats to the extent that no gaps might be seen.
Seoul and other cities predicted that up to 1 million people would flock to the festival on this day. In preparation for a crowd of citizens, Yeoui-dong-ro (the southern end of Mapo Bridge ~ in front of the 63 Building) was completely controlled from 2 PM to 11 PM on the same day. Public transport is also difficult to use. 19 bus routes passing near Yeouido are operating from 1 to 2 pm, bypassing the control section (Yeoui-dong-ro). Subway Line 5 has been passing through Yeouinaru Station flexibly without stopping from around 5 pm.
Reporter Lee Song-ryeol at Hankyung.com [email protected]