The city of Changwon in Gyeongsangnam-do (South Gyeongsang Province) strives to be reborn as the green capital of Korea, and is holding its second city festival in late October, prior to the 2008 Ramsar Wetland Convention, which is also scheduled to begin this month.
On Oct. 25 and 26 Changwon City will host a grand parade, filling Changwon Square and Joongang Street with multi-media fireworks, a concert, live performances and many things to see and do.
Each day will start with a big parade in the late afternoon at 3 p.m., followed by a concert at 7 p.m. and fireworks at 8:30 p.m. Activity programs will take place throughout the day from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day during the festival.
The congratulatory concert on Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. in front of Changwon City Hall Plaza will have a magic show, belly dance and a chance for people to play street basketball. Other activities include making things out of reeds, crafting clay dolls, face painting, caricature drawing and a photo exhibition over the two days.
The fireworks displays will be presented by teams from Korea, Italy and Portugal with high-tech multimedia systems. Beam lasers, graphic lasers and other artistic displays are expected to bring out countless cheers from people for the whole 20 minutes.
According to the city officials, the upcoming parade will be made up of four elements that form the basis of the universe: sky, sun, water and earth. The sky will symbolize the formation of Korea, the sun its past glory, water its vitality and the earth, its hopeful future.
The parade will begin with the opening of the sky to reveal heavenly maidens riding on a crane coming down to earth to communicate with humans. With the drumming in the background it will symbolize the beginning of communication filled with symbols of blue sky and clouds. The marching will include the Bongsan Mask dance and other Korean traditional performances with giant statues of cranes and other special effects.
The sun part will display the giant sun statue with dancers dressed as goddesses and knights. Folk arts troupes from overseas will start joining in the parade starting from the second part. Performers from Japan, Russia and Czech Republic will present their idea of the sun that shines on the world.
The water part will present parades of statues and dolls in the form of fish, birds, fairies, frogs and other playful characters of summer. There will be a performance about recycling for the environment, migratory birds' parade and bicycle parade. Performers from Brazil will join in this event.
The earth part that will coincide with the finale will symbolize the future and the green environment. It will feature parades of street music performers, electronic dancers, two giant robots “Chang” and “Won.” In between a whole array of folk play troupes from Thailand, India, Peru and France will follow, together with representatives from each eup, myeon and dong administrative area of Changwon.
Meanwhile, Ramsar's 10th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Convention of Wetlands (COP 10) will take place at the same city under the title “Healthy Wetlands, Healthy People” from Oct. 28 to Nov. 4.
For more information on 2008 Changwon City Festival go to
http://www.cwparade.com/ and click for
English. The homepage also offers guide to other interesting places and scenic sites within the city.
By Kim Hee-sung
Korea.net Staff Writer
