Nonsan Strawberry Festival ranked No. 1

Possibility of multifaceted evolution into an 'international festival' such as 2024 Overseas Agri-Food Expo and 2027 World Strawberry Expo

Nonsan Strawberry Festival ranked No. 1 in '1 county, 1 product festival' by Chungcheongnam-do

Selected as the best festival in the province by the Festival Development Committee... Receives a budget of 300 million won

Strawberry Festival Opening Ceremony Nonsan Mayor Paik Baek-hyun declares his vision for the city expo

2019 Agri-Food Expo in Thailand, 'good news' ahead of 2027 World Strawberry Expo promotion -

The Nonsan Strawberry Festival has been recognised as the best festival in the province by taking first place in the '1 County 1 Product Festival' selected by Chungcheongnam-do. As a result, the city of Nonsan will receive 300 million won in support for next year's festival.

Nonsan Mayor Paik Baek-hyun declares his vision for the Strawberry Festival's opening Sikdang City Expo

Strawberry Festival Opening Ceremony Nonsan Mayor Paik Baek-hyun declares his vision for the city expo.

Opening of the Strawberry FestivalNonSan Mayor Paik Baek-hyun declares his vision for the Sikdang City Expo

The '1-gun 1-product festival' was organised by Chungnam-do for the first time this year to foster a luxury festival representative of the county and to respond to the crisis of local disappearance by revitalising the tourism industry. The idea is to improve brand value by selecting luxury festivals that symbolise Chungnam-do.

During the written and oral submissions in December, Nonsan highlighted the historical and cultural value of the Nonsan Strawberry Festival and its economic impact, as well as its potential to evolve into an 'international festival' such as the Overseas Agri-Food Expo in 2024 and the World Strawberry Expo in 2027.

Kingsberry, a Nonsan native, is out of town

Nonsan Mayor Paik Baek-hyun during the forum for the success of the Strawberry Expo

Nonsan Mayor Paik Baek-hyun during the forum for the success of the Strawberry Expo

As a result of the final deliberations of the provincial festival promotion committee, the Nonsan Strawberry Festival was selected as the winner, and it was reported that the festival received high scores in all areas of evaluation, including the appropriateness of the plan, content competitiveness, and sustainability.

"Nonsan, Korea's representative strawberry special zone, has once again proven its worth," said Baek Paik-hyun, mayor of Nonsan City. "The future and potential of the strawberry industry, including the festival, which will be redesigned every year, are still limitless. With advanced cultivation technology, processing techniques, and the passion of farmers as the foundation, we will make Nonsan strawberries dominate the world."

Meanwhile, the Nonsan Strawberry Festival is a strawberry-themed festival with a history of more than 20 years, and is one of the leading speciality festivals not only in Chungcheongnam-do, but also in Korea, and is highly favoured by young people. The 2023 Nonsan Strawberry Festival, which was held for the first time in four years as a face-to-face festival amid the COVID-19 pandemic, was a huge success, attracting 350,000 tourists.

The city of Nonsan has declared its vision to host the World Strawberry Expo in Nonsan in 2027, following the transformation of the strawberry industry and the success of the festival, and is laying the foundation for internal and external strategies.

The festivals selected as the 'One Product Festival in One County' are as follows.

 Nonsan Strawberry Festival, Geumsan Samgyetang Festival, Seosan Haemiupseong Festival (above)

New Year's greetings for 2024 from Mayer Paik

Hello,  I would like to send you my New Year's greetings.

I wish you a happy new year.

A new year has dawned. This year is the year of the dragon, the year of the blue dragon.

2024 will be a year of new challenges and opportunities for Nonsan.

Last year, we overcame the challenges of COVID-19 and prepared for the future of Nonsan with innovations in defence, military and agriculture.

This year, we will build on these achievements to develop Nonsan into a world-class city. Nonsan has been changing and evolving based on proactive measures such as leapfrogging into a defence, military and fisheries city, investing in companies, pioneering overseas sales of agricultural specialties, scientificising Nonsan agriculture, and innovating infrastructure for children and youth education.

In particular, the strategy to attract a differentiated defence innovation cluster by focusing on AI technology and the plans to host the Nonsan Agri-Food Overseas Expo in 2024 and the Nonsan World Strawberry Expo in 2027 in Bangkok, Thailand, are promoting the new vision of Nonsan at the centre of the world stage.

These efforts and achievements were made possible by the support and cooperation of our citizens, and I will do my best to listen to their voices and make their lives full of warmth and happiness.

I wish Nonsan City and its citizens good health and good fortune as we walk together in the new year. Thank you.

Nonsan Mayor Paik Baek-hyun wins 'Korea's Greatest Citizen Award'

Recognized for leading the way in administrative innovation... Mayor Baek says "Nonsan will become even newer"

[Chungcheong News Nonsan = Cho Hong-ki] Nonsan City Mayor Paik Baek won the Grand Prize in the Administrative Innovation category at the 'Great People of Korea Awards' ceremony held at the Kookmin Ilbo Building Convention Hall in Yeouido-dong, Seoul on Dec. 26.

The Great People of Korea Awards, held for the fifth time this year and organized by the Korea Corrective Journalists Association, recognizes individuals who have shined in each of Korea's social fields, including politics, economy, culture, administration, media, arts, and sports.

Baek, the mayor of Nonsan City, was recognized for his innovative transformation of the city's industries and policies to create new places to live to combat the crisis of rural depopulation.

Since taking office in July last year, Baek has been advocating a "three-pronged" administration to raise citizens' income, quality of life, and well-being, and has made policy transformation based on a specific vision to leapfrog Nonsan into a "mecca for the defense and military industry" by maximizing the region's characteristics, especially its concentration of military-related infrastructure. In doing so, it has attracted leading defense companies represented by Korea Defense Industries as well as the Future Technology Research Center under the Korea Advanced Institute of Defense Science and Technology to Nonsan, sowing the seeds of regional development.

In particular, the main reason for the award is that he has been advocating new paradigms such as the "4+1 Administration," which unites the relevant population represented by military personnel in the public administration, business, education, and civic sectors with the intention of reviving the southern region of Chungnam, and the "5 Village 2 Road," a rural hope project that conveys the value of production and healing to the young and old.

In addition, while spurring research on smart farming technology with the goal of scientificizing and globalizing agriculture, which is the root of local livelihoods, he has served as the 'representative salesman of Nonsan' for the Southeast Asian market, securing tens of millions of dollars worth of contracts on several occasions.

In accepting the award, Nonsan Mayor Paik Baek-hyun cited Albert Einstein's quote, "It is insane to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results.

"I have been working hard to increase the value of Nonsan, to help citizens live better, and to turn the local crisis into an opportunity for revitalization," he said. "If the central administrative guidelines do not fit the local vision of the future, I will persuade the government to break the practice. Please pay attention to the new Nonsan."

Meanwhile, the main winners of this year's Korea's Greatest Citizens Award were Prime Minister Chu Kyung-ho in the economy category, as well as Lee Ha-kyung, editor-in-chief of JoongAng Ilbo, Choi Hyun-man, chairman of Mirae Asset Securities, Song Yoon-taek, chairman of Wingtex, Kim Sun-gil, standing committee member of the Chungnam branch of the Korean Red Cross, and Choi Hun, KBS broadcaster, who received the award alongside Nonsan Mayor Paik Baek-hyun.