A street parade, K-pop stars and a megaconcert featuring Psy will fill Gangnam this weekend, as the district seeks to turn its annual festival into a draw for visitors from around the world.
“We want to grow it until people think of Gangnam when they think of a K-festival,” Gangnam-gu Mayor Kim Hyeon-ki said at Seoul City Hall on Monday.
The 15th Gangnam Festival runs from Saturday to Monday, with its main street events taking place on Dosan-daero, the road running through the Cheongdam-dong and Apgujeong-dong areas. The district expects at least 30,000 visitors over the festival period.
A parade will travel over a course of about 1 kilometer from Cheongdam Intersection to Dosan Park Intersection from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday. It will open with a traditional Korean marching band and procession, followed by large character balloons and other performances.
A family concert at 7 p.m. Saturday will feature Nam Jin, Roo’ra, Lim Chang-jung, Hong Kyung-min and Hong Ji-yoon. Sunday’s K-pop concert will feature Zerobaseone and KiiiKiii, with Psy, whose hit “Gangnam Style” brought global attention to the district, closing the show.
“The K-pop concert is the festival’s main event, and we expect the concert to draw a crowd of more than 10,000,” Kim said. “We plan to put on an exciting two-hour show while taking every possible measure to keep people safe.”
Kim said 13,000 free tickets had been issued for the concert and were quickly claimed.
The district looked to major street festivals, including New York’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and Japan’s Aomori Nebuta Festival, as it planned this year’s event, Kim said.
The festival is being held on Dosan-daero because its longtime venue on Yeongdong-daero is unavailable during construction of the Gangnam Intermodal Transit Center, an underground transit hub expected to be completed around 2030.
“Seoul has yet to establish a signature street festival. We hope Gangnam Festival can grow into one,” a district official said. The official added that the festival would return to Yeongdong-daero after construction is completed.
A food zone featuring vendors serving dishes from countries including the United States, Japan, South Africa, Thailand, Singapore and Morocco will operate from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
All lanes between Hakdong Intersection and Dosan Park Intersection will be closed to traffic from 12:01 a.m. Saturday until 5 a.m. Monday.
yunapark@heraldcorp.com