This year's Spring Palace Culture Festival is scheduled from April 27 to May 5 at Seoul's five major royal palaces and Jongmyo Shrine. Shown is a scene from last year's edition featuring the musical "King Sejong, 1446" at Gyeongbokgung Palace.

By Lee Kyoung Mi
Photos = Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation

This year's Spring K-Royal Culture Festival will highlight the beauty of the nation's royal palaces amid warm spring weather.

The Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation on April 4 held a news conference at Korea House in Seoul's Jung-gu District to release the festival's programs and schedule for performances and ceremonies.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the biannual event in spring and fall is a celebration of the nation's cultural heritage with diverse content using the location and history of the palaces.

Running from April 26 through May 5, this year's event will be held at Seoul's five major royal palaces of Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, Deoksugung, Changgyeonggung and Gyeonghuigung plus Jongmyo Shrine, starting with the opening ceremony on opening day.

Participants on April 4 pose for a group photo at the news conference for this year's Spring K-Royal Culture Festival at the Korea House in Seoul's Jung-gu District. From left are Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation Chairman Choi Young-chang; Park Dong-woo, director of the event's opening ceremony; Cho Eun-kyung, manager of the restoration and maintenance division of the Cultural Heritage Administration's Royal Palaces and Tombs Center; Chiara Quattrone, an Italian member of the volunteer group Goong-eeDoong-ee; festival program directors Koo Byung-jun and Song Jae-sung; and Lim Jae-joo, head of the foundation's cultural heritage utilization division.

The opening ceremony on April 26 will have the theme "Spirit of Love for the People" of Joseon Dynasty King Sejong the Great; the event's director is Hongik University professor Park Dong-woo. "We want to recreate a hypothetical banquet in 1446 had the king invited delegations and people from neighboring countries to the palace to attend the proclamation ceremony for Hunminjeongeum (textbook of the Korean alphabet Hangeul)," he said.

To ensure an experience free from the language barrier, the festival is using an international reservation system and separate programs exclusively for foreign visitors.

Gyeongbokgung will host events like "A Time Travel, King Sejong - Royal Palace Daily Life" and "Palace Concert: A Performance by 100 Artists." These programs allow audience participation in activities such as traditional costumes and performances at Gyeonghoeru Pavilion.

The palace will also hold an event featuring a saenggwabang, a venue where snacks and treats for the Joseon king were made, and the Starlight Night Tour.

Changdeokgung will host moonlight tours and Deoksugung the Seokjojeon Hall Night Tour.

Reservations are required for all programs given quotas for the number of time slots and visitors.

This is the official promotional poster for the 2024 Spring K-Royal Culture Festival.

Chiara Quattrone, an Italian national at the news conference as a global representative of Goong-eeDoong-ee, a volunteer group for the festival with at least 20% of members being non-Koreans, said she wanted learn more about Korea and its traditional culture. She added that she attended the festival last fall and that she hoped for many people to come to this event as well.

More information is on the websites of the Royal Palaces and Tombs Center under the Cultural Heritage Administration (https://royal.cha.go.kr/ENG/main/index.do), the foundation (www.chf.or.kr) and its English-language section (https://chf.or.kr/fest/en), and the foundation's official Instagram account (@royalculturefestival_official).

km137426@korea.kr