Songpa's Hansung Baekje Cultural Festival Wins Gold and Silver at IFEA's "Pinnacle Awards"

Held October 23-25 at Olympic Park

Songpa District, Seoul, said its signature festival, the Hansung Baekje Cultural Festival, won gold and silver awards at the world competition of the International Festivals & Events Association (IFEA) Pinnacle Awards.

Songpa District Mayor Seo Kangseok delivers remarks at the opening ceremony of the 25th Hansung Baekje Cultural Festival, held last year. Photo provided by Songpa District.

Songpa District said on the 18th that the festival won gold in the Best Video Promotion category and silver in the Best Emergency Response/Risk Management Plan category.

The Pinnacle Awards is an international awards program in which IFEA annually recognizes outstanding festivals and events around the world. This year's world competition was held in Tucson, Arizona, in the United States, with entries from 30 countries competing in 67 categories.

The awards recognized the 25th festival, held last year. Under the theme "The Power of Culture Moving Forward as One," it featured performances spanning tradition and modernity, including traditional Korean music, media art and K-pop. A total of 509,897 people attended over three days. According to the district, 33,547 of them were international visitors, who came from 79 countries, including Japan, China, the United States and Taiwan.

In the video promotion category, judges gave high marks to a video that vividly captured the festival, including performances on a 60-meter-wide main stage and scenes of festivalgoers. In the safety management category, the festival's emergency response and risk management plan for an event that drew about 510,000 people was recognized. The district operated real-time on-site monitoring and a cooperation system involving the police, fire services and medical institutions.

The Hansung Baekje Cultural Festival has also regularly won awards at the Pinnacle Awards' Korea competition. Last year, it won gold in the Video Media category and bronze in the Festival Safety category.

The 26th Hansung Baekje Cultural Festival will be held October 23-25 this year at 88 Grass Field in Olympic Park. Under the theme "Brilliant Culture, Deep Resonance, United as One," it will feature a 60-meter-wide main stage, a drone show with 900 drones, and classical music, traditional Korean music and K-pop performances. The district will assign more than 200 safety personnel per day, about 70 more than last year, and run around 20 hands-on programs for children and families.

Songpa District Mayor Seo Kangseok said, "This award recognizes internationally the artistic excellence of the Hansung Baekje Cultural Festival and our ability to operate it safely. We will enhance Songpa's city brand value with creative, high-quality cultural and artistic content."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.