This image announcing the hosting of “2024 KXF The Fashion” is captured from the Instagram account of the event’s organizer. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 17 (Korea Bizwire) – The office of Seoul’s southern district of Gangnam has decided to ban the hosting of an upcoming adult festival on its premises, officials said Wednesday, marking the fourth entity to refuse to host the controversial event.
The organizer of “2024 KXF The Fashion,” a rare adult festival in South Korea, has been seeking to throw the event in a popular cafe alley in Gangnam’s Apgujeong neighborhood. The festival reportedly would feature Japanese adult video actresses and other in-person adult content.
The previous day, the district office notified some 300 food service businesses in Apgujeong of its ban on the hosting of the festival, citing regulations under the Food Sanitation Act, district officials said.
The office warned businesses that accommodating the event could result in administrative penalties, citing concerns about the commercialization of sex and the potential harm the event could do to public morality.
“The office will mobilize all its administrative power to prevent the hosting of the socially disruptive festival from taking place in Gangnam,” district office chief Cho Sung-myung said.
The district office will work with the police and the merchants’ community in Apgujeong to respond to the possibility of the event organizer unexpectedly proceeding with the festival.
Gangnam is the fourth entity to refuse hosting the adult festival.
The organizer had initially sought to hold the event at a private exhibition hall in Suwon, south of Seoul, only to be fiercely resisted by residents and civic groups there.
The next choice was the city of Paju, northwest of Seoul, which also blocked hosting the festival on its premises.
The organizer then moved the event to a cruise bar on the southern side of the Han River, but the Seoul city government once again prohibited the bar from hosting the event, warning of a possible revocation of its lease rights.
Following the third refusal, the organizer had announced on its Instagram account the previous day that the event would take place in the cafe district of Apgujeong.
(Yonhap)
