The opening ceremony for Hi Seoul Festival 2010 was held on the night of October 2nd at a special stage set in the Han River Park in Yeouido to signal the official start to a grand celebration. Marking its eighth year, Hi Seoul Festival has grown to be the capital’s most well-known cultural event. Here’s Mr. Kim Young-ho, an official with the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, to explain more about the annual celebration.

More than 300 festivals take place in Seoul every year, but Hi Seoul Festival is the capital city’s signature cultural celebration. The festival is seeing more visitors every year, and in 2009 more than 15 million people came to see the festival. About 10% of them were foreigners who enjoyed Seoul through the festival. Everyone acknowledges that Hi Seoul Festival is Seoul’s most well-known festival.

The reputation of Hi Seoul Festival has grown over the past eight years as an entertaining and enjoyable festivity. The word-of-mouth publicity has helped draw an increasing number of foreign visitors to the festival. Some foreign tourists even plan their travel itineraries around it. Let’s go join the crowd of people having a great time at Hi Seoul Festival.

The theme for this year’s Hi Seoul Festival is nonverbal performance. It emphasizes the importance of body language and nonverbal communication, which help people overcome the barriers of race, language, generation, and social class to share their thoughts and feelings. Here’s the festival’s artistic director Lee Sung-yeop.

Conventional performances relied on texts or languages, whereas nonverbal ones use body movements, music, dance, and even martial arts and technology to communicate directly with the audience. I believe this is communicating with one another through performances. Nonverbal performance is a genre that can be enjoyed by everyone around the world. Hi Seoul Festival chose nonverbal performance as its theme to demonstrate that it wants to be a global celebration. This is the first time in the world that such an extensive and large-scale event devoted to nonverbal performance was held.

Roughly 70 performance groups from 13 nations, including Korea, France, Australia, and Spain, are taking part in the festivity. The performers presented exciting and delightful mime, music, circus, and percussion performances all over downtown Seoul. An opening gala titled “Oh! Nonverbal,” a highlight of the ten-day program, was showcased at the opening ceremony.

“Oh! Nonverbal” featured Canada’s Scrap Arts Music team and Korean performers of “Cookin’ Nanta” and “Baramgot Concert.” The inspiring performance was followed by spectacular fireworks, which amplified the electrifying atmosphere of Hi Seoul Festival.

The art firework show was the first performance in Korea by the renowned French firework team Group F. Entitled “Love at First Sight,” the fantastic bursts of fireworks signaled the beginning of the festival. The fireworks performance was truly a love at first sight for spectators, who watched in awe as 22,800 kilograms of fireworks decorated the night skies above the 90 meter-long stage.

- I really enjoyed it. It was a great spectacle.
- It was great and really pretty. The fireworks were even prettier against the dark skies. It felt like the stars were falling on top of me.
-It was so fun. I’ve never seen anything like it. I never knew that fireworks can be so wonderful. Now that I’ve seen it, it was awesome and enjoyable. The sound of fireworks blew all my stress away. I just love Hi Seoul Festival.

Thanks to the dazzling start, anticipation for Hi Seoul Festival ran high. Spectators were treated to practically non-stop nonverbal performances at the Han River Park in Yeouido, where the opening ceremony was held, the Seoul Plaza, the Gwanghwamun Plaza, the Cheonggyecheon Plaza, and Seonyu Island for ten days. This year’s festival differed from past ones in the diversity of venues. Here’s Mr. Kim Young-ho of the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture.

In the past most of the performances were held in plazas. But this year we expanded the festival venues to include famous spots in Seoul. It would have been difficult to pull off a festival of this scale if we confined it to just downtown Seoul. But if we diversified the venues, like the Han River Park, we can offer more programs. Also the Han River is a symbol of a changing city, and for bridging the north and south sides of the river. When you come out to the Han River, you’ll see that there are most amenities available and the whole sceneries have undergone transformation. The river has become a great place to enjoy a festival. Hi Seoul Festival is an opportunity for people to come and see how much the Han River has changed over the years.

Since the performances are held throughout the city, visitors can kill two birds with one stone by sightseeing various tourist destinations around Seoul while also enjoying Hi Seoul Festival performances.

Professional artists are scheduled to put on some 200 performances and amateur teams another 200 performances at this year’s Hi Seoul Festival. That’s a total of roughly 400 free performances for festival-goers.

Since the festival showcases a wide range of nonverbal performances, spectators can pick and choose their favorite from street performances, aerial shows, puppet shows, mimes, music concerts, and even circuses.

- It was really fun and unusual. It’s nice that we can see such performances in Seoul without traveling abroad. I didn’t have to prepare for a long trip. Instead I just dropped by as I was walking from one place to another. It’s like a surprise show.
- It’s great and interesting to see such shows in the downtown. It’s better than taking 100 vitamin pills.

You must reserve your tickets to performances with a limited number of seats or appear in person one and a half before the start of performance to get tickets. But only the lucky ones can get in as the shows sell out pretty quickly.

Hands-on nonverbal experience programs are available at the festival’s exclusive Big Top Village at Yeouido’s Han River Park.

Visitors can play in an orchestra made up of musical instruments made out of old bicycles and recycled goods. In particular, Hi Seoul Festival 2010 features more hands-on and participatory programs for visitors than in previous years. It’s a great feeling to be a leading star in the festival. Here’s Mr. Kim Young-ho of the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture again.

Visitors don’t just watch the performances at this year’s festival. Instead they take part in the programs and even play main characters in some shows. In fact, some 2,000 people can play leading roles in the performances. For instance, there’s this program about a parade of sparrows. The role of the mother sparrow is played by a French actress, but the chicks are played by ordinary visitors who were recruited on the first-come, first-serve basis. On the last day of the festival we plan to block off the Jamsu Bridge to hold a huge parade. Visitors can join the parade without making reservations in advance.

The citizen participation program, “For Everyone,” offers everyone a chance to flaunt his or her hidden talents.

Physically and mentally disabled youths have practiced for the festival for three years. Teachers are elated that their students were able to pull off a performance without making any mistakes and, as a result, gained confidence about themselves.

My students were really looking forward to this and they’re ecstatic that spectators gave them a rave response. I’m thankful that they’ve done their parts well. The students really worked hard, so much so that their hands were all swollen. Although my students are physically disabled, they showed proudly what they can do. I hope there are more festivals like this one so that amateur performance teams like ours get a chance to perform. Now it’s time to watch how other teams do and learn from them. Then we’ll have something to eat and just enjoy ourselves before going back home.

If the performances of professional artists are thrilling and astonishing, those of amateurs are simple, yet very moving. The festival allows both professionals and amateurs to show what they have and perform in harmony, and gives everyone a chance to star in his or her own show. It’s also a great opportunity to experience the wonderful sights and sounds of Seoul, while enjoying the festival.

- The city seems really vibrant.
- I applied for a part in a citizen participation play. I’m glad I get to have this opportunity. Just watching other people perform is totally different from actually doing it myself.
-I came to see Hi Seoul Festival, but also came to realize that the Han River is absolutely beautiful. It’s fantastic! Go, Hi Seoul Festival!

For ten days the city of Seoul is energized with the captivating rhythms of percussion instruments and feverish shouts of excited visitors. The city pulsates with explosive energy and breathtaking passion. The official schedule of 2010 Hi Seoul Festival may be over, but there is really no end to the celebration. Without fail, the festival begins again in the best season of all. Here’s Mr. Kim Young-ho of the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture to explain more.

This is an annual festival and we are already getting ready for next year’s event. Hi Seoul Festival is not only the most well-known festival of the city, but a celebration shaped by ordinary Koreans and even foreigners. We hope to see Hi Seoul Festival grow into a global fiesta. Unless there’s a natural catastrophe, the festival begins on the first Saturday of May and continues for ten days until the next Sunday. I hope that the festival provides great venues for eye-catching performances from around the globe. If you have a foreign friend planning to visit Korea, tell him about the festival so many more foreigners can come and have a good time.

Traditionally a May event, this year’s Hi Seoul Festival was postponed to October, because of the tragic sinking of the Korean warship Cheonan in late March. But next year the festival will take place in spring like always, and the preparations are already underway. If you happen to be in Seoul next spring and see pink flags flying about, it’s a sign that Hi Seoul Festival is in full swing. How about including Seoul in your spring travel itinerary? You’re sure to get a fun-filled dose of diverse cultural experiences.