The Gangneung Danoje Festival has opened in Gangneung and will run through next Thursday.

This year’s event will feature some 70 programs including folk arts performances and traditional customs such as washing women’s hair with a type of iris.

A parade will be held this Saturday after rituals to appease the mountain gods in the nearby Daegwallyeong Mountains. It will include some five thousand participants. The theme will be to wish for nearby Pyeongchang to win the right to host the 2018 Winter Olympic Games.

The festival organizing committee will also hold “familiarization tours,” where elementary school children and foreign military officers are invited to Gangneung, as well as complimentary tour groups for the Danoje festival.

The festival is on the UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list.