▲ This photo, shows the performance in the Royal Culture Festival held on the 15th. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

 

 

SEOUL, May 25 (Yonhap) -- It has been revealed that more than 500,000 people visited the palace during the Royal Culture Festival held from the 10th till the 22nd in line with the opening of Cheong Wa Dae.

The Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation announced on the 24th that the number of offline visitors to the Spring Royal Culture Festival was 524,564 while the number of online participants was 238,958.

The number of offline visitors was the result of adding up all the visitors in the five major palaces, including Gyeongbokgung palace, Changdeokgung Palace, Changgyeonggung Palace, Deoksugung Palace, Gyeonghuigung Palace along with Jongmyo Shrine and Sajikdan. The 377,000 visitors to Cheong Wa Dae, which was the backyard of the Gyeongbokgung Palace were excluded. 

 

The Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation conveyed that compared to the spring festival last year, the number of visitors to the Royal Culture Festival increased by 360,000 and about 110,000 more compared to 2019, before COVID-19.

However, the duration of the festival last year and in 2019 was 10 days, three days shorter than this year.

"The number of visitors seemed to have increased as the COVID-19 quarantine guidelines have been eased in Korea while the interest in cultural heritage also increasing," analyzed an official from the Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation.

The Spring Royal Culture Festival was held under the theme of "Narye and Yeonhee," a reinterpretation of the Byeoksa ceremony. The fall festival is scheduled to begin on 1st October.

 

(This article has been translated from Korean to English by Haemin Kim.)

 

 

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