The Korean Cultural Center to the European Union in Belgium said on the 16th that it will host a large-scale festival, "Unboxing Korea: Scoop the Trend," on Oct. 18–19 (local time) at the center located in the heart of Brussels and at Chapelle Square, where visitors can experience the appeal of K-culture, K-beauty, K-food, and K-tourism.
Now in its second year following last year, the event is prepared to link the popularity of K-culture with K-food, K-beauty, and K-tourism to cement the image of the Republic of Korea as a cultural powerhouse, while also creating economic value by supporting on-site promotions and exports of Korean products.
The cultural center, located opposite the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels' top tourist attraction, will transform into a "K-beauty zone" and a "K-tourism zone," while Chapelle Square, set along a street with more than 200 trendy shops, will become a "K-culture zone" and a "K-food zone."
In the "K-culture zone" at Chapelle Square, a "K-pop Demon Hunters zone" will be run in collaboration with Netflix's EU office to offer a variety of hands-on experiences. Visitors can dress in hanbok and wear ribbon hair ornaments like animation characters, and take photos at the photo spot with HuntRix and Lion Boys as backdrops. A traditional craft workshop will also operate, where people can make norigae, jokduri, and ikseongwan, which have recently drawn strong local interest, and performances by local K-pop cover dance groups will follow.
In the "K-food zone," nine domestic rice-processed food corporations will participate in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aT), and the Korea Rice Processing Association to run pop-up stores promoting and selling various desserts made with Korean rice, traditional liquor cocktails, tteokbokki, and home meal replacements (HMR). There will also be pop-up stores selling pouch drinks and ice cups, which are gaining popularity across Europe, along with tasting corners for sotteok-sotteok and tteokkochi, representative rice-based snacks at highway rest areas.
In the "K-beauty zone" set up at the cultural center, six domestic small and medium-sized corporations and two local distribution companies will open pop-up stores to showcase a variety of K-beauty products. Experts will be invited to demonstrate idol and K-drama lead makeup, and offer personal color analysis and free touch-ups. In particular, visitors can try a range of lipstick and lip tint shades and receive recommendations for MLBB (My Lips But Better) products that suit their skin tone.
The "K-tourism zone," in collaboration with the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) Paris office, will focus on introducing trends in travel to Korea for foreign visitors. Using tarot cards familiar to Europeans, it will recommend major tourist destinations in Korea. There will also be a Jeju Olle Trail exhibit and a hands-on program to make Jeju keyrings. A four-cut photo booth shipped from Korea will support instant photo-taking, a popular content item for foreign tourists visiting Korea, and there will be a corner for learning essential Korean phrases for travel.