People watch the Seoul World Fireworks Festival at Hangang Park in Yeouido on Saturday evening. (Image courtesy of reporter Jang Bo-in with Yonhap News)
SEOUL, Oct. 7 (Korea Bizwire) – A large-scale international fireworks festival was to take place in Seoul on Saturday, anticipating a crowd of over 1 million people, the city government has beefed up measures to ensure public safety, officials said.
Under the theme “Lights of Tomorrow,” the 2023 Seoul International Fireworks Festival, organized by Hanwha Group, will be held at the Han River Park in Yeouido.
The annual event will feature three teams from South Korea, China and Poland, and around 400 drones will be mobilized for a massive fireworks display, Hanwha officials said.
This year’s event will deploy the largest number of barges yet for the biggest-ever international fireworks event, they added.
The event will be livestreamed on its official YouTube channel, Hanwha TV, as well as on its exclusive app, Orange Play, the company added.
Considering the huge crowd, the Seoul municipal government established a comprehensive safety headquarters at the event venue and increased personnel in charge of crowd control and other safety steps by 26 percent compared with last year.
Emergency medical arrangements have been in place, and parts of the roads on Yeouido have been completely blocked from 2 p.m. through 11 p.m.
Hanwha said it also dispatched some 3,400 officials and volunteer workers to the venue, some 20 percent larger from a year earlier, and installed more surveillance cameras for enhanced monitoring of large crowds.
(Yonhap)
