Cheonan K-Culture Fair 2023 to be held at Independence Hall from Aug. 11-15
Cheonan City will host the first-ever Cheonan K-Culture Fair 2023 from August 11-15 this year at Independence Hall, in conjunction with the August 15 Liberation Day ceremony.
'K-Culture' is defined as a lifestyle (Korean culture) with high persistence and ripple effect, which includes not only the pop culture content industry but also traditional culture, arts and cultural contents.
While many local governments have been holding various events under the theme of K-culture, the reality is that most festivals are centered around K-Pop performances.
However, the K-Culture Fair being prepared in Cheonan plans to present a differentiated fair that showcases Hallyu culture, which is imbued with the ethnic cultural spirit of K-Soul, rather than the existing K-POP-oriented performances and festivals.
<Cornerstone laid for Cheonan K-Culture Fair>
Since taking office in April 2020, Cheonan Mayor Park Sang-don has been doing his best to prevent the spread of COVID-19 through active administrative responses at a time when many people were suffering from the disease.
With the idea of Cheonan as a high-quality cultural city, Mayor Park has continued to make efforts to discover its unique history and traditions and to build a unique cultural infrastructure centered on the Independence Hall, and the fruits of these efforts are being realized in the Cheonan K-Culture Fair.
The Cheonan K-Culture Fair, which started with the intention of regularizing a cultural expo at the Independence Hall, did not go smoothly from the beginning.
There were many challenges to overcome, such as the questionable representation of culture in Cheonan, and the clash between the memorialized image of the Independence Hall and the modern, upbeat image of the K-Culture Fair.
Therefore, through continuous business presentations and exchanges with the Ministry of National Veterans Affairs, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Chungcheongnam-do Province, Baekbum Kim Gu Business Association, and National Youth Training Center, we are continuing to cooperate to secure government funding and promote the project.
In addition, we have continued the process of communication with the Independence Hall as it is necessary to understand the fair with the Independence Hall, not just Cheonan City's unilateral idea, and the Independence Hall has been cooperating with us in many areas through positive reviews to ensure that the fair will be held well.
As a result, on September 1, 2022, Cheonan City and the Independence Hall signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to interact as partners for the successful holding of the K-Culture Fair, and continued practical discussions through active cooperation in promoting the K-Culture Fair with the K-Culture Expo Steering Committee.
In addition, through the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the development of the K-culture industry with Dankook University and the Independence Hall on May 25, 2023, the exchange and joint utilization of human and material resources in K-culture-related areas is actively underway to build infrastructure to promote the 2026 Cheonan K-Culture World Expo.
<To herald the Cheonan K-Culture Fair>
On May 5, it held the 'K-Culture Fair Launching Ceremony' to announce the meaning of the Expo ahead of the 100th day of the 'Cheonan K-Culture Expo 2023'.
Held in conjunction with the 101st Children's Day event at the Independence Hall, the event was attended by 220 people, including Cheonan Mayor Park Sang-don, Independence Hall Director Han Si-jun, 100 fair supporters, and 40 native English instructors from the Cheonan Internationalization Education Special Zone Project.
Various programs, including a K-POP dance performance by the Cheonan Street Dance Association, were held to promote the fair to the many visitors who came to Independence Hall for Children's Day.
On May 30, we promoted the KBS Open Concert for the 60th anniversary of the promotion to the city status, and on July 12, we appointed Pole Kim and Taekwon Kri as ambassadors, and various events are being promoted sequentially to create a boom in advance of the 2023 Cheonan K-Culture Fair and make it a successful first fair.
<Propulsion for Cheonan K-Culture Expo>
From April to November 2022, Cheonan City promoted the "2026 K-Culture World Expo Basic Plan Establishment and Feasibility Study Research Service" and completed the "2023 Cheonan K-Culture Expo Basic Plan Establishment".
In addition, through the "2023 Cheonan K-Culture Fair Implementation Plan" in early 2023, we finalized the overall fairground construction plan and major programs, and are promoting operational preparations for the Cheonan K-Culture Fair, which will be held from August 11 to 15, 2023.
To lay the groundwork for the 2026 K-Culture World Expo, the 2023 Cheonan K-Culture Expo will provide a comprehensive venue for the history and future of K-Culture at the Independence Hall, which symbolizes Korea's national spirit and culture.
In conjunction with the development of the K-content industry, which the government has selected as a national task, the World Expo will showcase K-pop and dance, K-movies and dramas, K-webtoons, K-lifestyle (fashion, beauty, and goods), and K-food.
Gradually, it plans to promote a world fair in 2026 that encompasses all the various K-cultures classified by the Special Classification System of the Content Industry Statistics Survey and the Korea International Cultural Exchange Agency (Hallyu White Paper), such as K-games, K-sports, K-healing and tourism.
The core contents will include K-culture-themed performances and celebrations starting with the opening ceremony, a K-ICT fantasy show (drone fireworks) to showcase digital convergence show rolls, a hanbok show to showcase K-heritage, OST concerts, and K-POP cover dance contests.
As an affiliated program, we are reviving the meaning of the Independence Hall and promoting the World Independence Movement Exhibition, which shares the process and historical spirit of the independence movement of independent countries through cooperation with independent countries around the world,
Through these various programs, we are working to lead the excitement of the Cheonan K-Culture Expo in 2023, laying the groundwork for the 2026 World Expo.
<Future direction of Cheonan K-Culture Expo>
The Cheonan K-Culture Fair analyzes the existing Korean culture to establish a new Korean culture (K-Culture), and analyzes and predicts the changing tastes of the world to provide a guide for industry development.
Through the K-Culture Market, the city plans to expand the global cultural industry in the field of culture and arts, and to introduce various nighttime digital and media technologies fused with super-gap technologies to create a new nighttime economy centered on the Independence Hall.
Park Sang-don, the mayor of Cheonan City, said that another driving force in the world is culture, and it is the power of culture that brings everyone together.
"This world-class Hallyu was able to emerge from the foundation of national development after liberation," said Mayor Park, adding, "Therefore, we want to show the power of Korean identity and high culture at the Independence Hall, which symbolizes national spirit, and we will make the Independence Hall a global attraction and build Cheonan as a Hallyu culture tourism city."