Early spring Jeju oreum “It is burning.”

2019 Jeju Wildfire Festival held on March 7

The 2019 Jeju Wildfire Festival, which has become the best festival in the Republic of Korea, will be held on March 7th to 10th with the theme of "Wildfire, lights up the world with dreams" at Saebyuloreum Mt.59-8, Bongseong-ri, Aewol-eup, Jeju-si, Jeju-do for 4 days. The Jeju Wildfire Festival is a cultural tourism festival that transforms the old nomadic culture of Jeju, called "Bangae", into a modern tourism culture. Bangae is a traditional culture of Jeju that burned the fields in order to eliminate the old grass of mountain pastures and to save pests for cattle grazing such as cows and horses during late winter to early spring.

Every year except
for foot-and-mouth disease

The Jeju Wildfire Festival is held annually on January 1st in the lunar calendar and celebrated its 22nd anniversary this year. Since 2000, this festival has fixed the festival place as Saebyuloreum. It is a popular annual festival held annually, except in 2011 when foot-and-mouth disease struck the country. As the festival was repeated, the festival period has increased from one day to three days, and programs such as sights, food, and entertainment have been upgraded. However, as the weather conditions in Jeju caused obstacles to the festival around the New Year holidays, the schedule was changed to the weekend where the event was held. From the 16th time in 2013, the name has changed from "Jeongwol Daeboreum Fire Festival" to "Jeju Wildfire Festival", and from 2015, the date has been extended from the previous 3 days to 4 days in order to take the lead in the national festival.

Steady popularity
for domestic and foreign tourists

Wildfire Festival is trying to hold as festival that citizen becomes main body of operation. It is preparing various exhibitions, special exhibitions, etc. for citizens and tourists to participate easily. In addition, it is expanding the discounts on tourist attractions linked to festivals and the development of tourist products related to festivals. The Wildfire Festival runs diverse experiences such as Jeju traditional folk play and torchlight parades that foreign tourists can easily participate in. It shows the unique characteristics of the unique culture of 'Jeju Island'. In particular, the festival will be held under the theme of "Light up the world with dreams". Above all, it is the safest festival that is easy for visitors to participate and the shuttle bus is expanded and operated so that Jeju residents and tourists can easily find the festival place. In addition, they prepared a countermeasure preparation manual for weather deterioration, set up a quick response system, and pre-promote the relocation of the program to prepare for the confusion in the event of an emergency. Also, since it is a fire festival, it is evaluated as having a thorough preparation system against fire.

Place of Festival 'Saebyuloreum'

Saebyuloreum, where the Jeju Wildfire Festival is held, is located in Mt.59-8, Bongseong-ri, Aewol-eup, Jeju-si, Jeju-do and also famouse historical site for a battlefield. It is named "It Shines Like a Morning Star" and is 519.3m above sea level, 119m above the ground, 2,713m in circumference, 522,216㎡ in area. It is a medium size mountain among 360 mountains in Jeju Island. The Jeju Wildfire Festival, which was selected as the best festival of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2018, was selected as an excellent festival for the third consecutive year from 2015 to 2017 and it was selected as the best festival of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province for 2014~2017 continuously. The 2019 Jeju Wildfire Festival is organized by the Jeju Tourism Festival Promotion Council.

Translation Editor Yumi Choi

Sr. Journalist Sangin Lee / lagolftime@ttlnews.com