Seoul City will hold the Seoul Friendship Festival 2018 (Sept. 1 – 2), its representative global event, where people can enjoy a treasure trove of diverse cultures from around the world in one place.
The festival (formerly the Seoul Friendship Fair) is famous for its history and its tradition of allowing visitors to enjoy diverse cultural performances and foods from the world’s major cities and of promoting cultural exchanges.
This year’s festival, attended by Seoul’s fifteen sister and friendship cities and seventy foreign embassies in Korea, will consist of cultural performances from fifteen overseas cities, an exhibition of foods from fifty-seven countries, a city tourism fair involving fifty-three countries, a publicity exhibition by eleven international organizations and NGOs, and a world marriage culture festival.
The cultural performances will take place in Seoul Plaza, while the World Food Exhibition, which is growing in popularity every year, will be held in Mugyo-ro and Cheonggyecheon-ro. Visitors will be able to sample the cuisine of fifty-seven countries among many other attractions. Please note that those who prepare their tasting schedules in advance will have a more pleasant time.
At the City Tourism Fair, some fifty-three countries will operate promotional booths at Seoul Plaza to display and sell diverse traditional artifacts and show off their attractive tourism contents.
The World Marriage Culture Festival will feature a wide range of performances, exhibitions, experience programs and events under the theme of global marriage culture. In particular, street parades by foreign participants wearing marriage costumes of ten countries, including Korea, are sure to attract much enthusiastic attention. Notably, Vietnam’s traditional wedding ceremony will be reenacted to provide citizens and visitors with an opportunity to experience the Southeast Asian country’s marriage culture.
In addition, major international organizations and NGOs such as the UNHCR, Green Peace, and Save the Children will attend the festival to publicize their international aid activities and run various experience programs in which Seoul citizens can take part.
Source: Seoul Metropolitan Government
