On an autumn night, Seoul's sky will once again be filled with dazzling light. Hanwha Group's "Seoul International Fireworks Festival" will be held on the 5th around Yeouido Hangang Park.
Marking its 22nd year, the festival will start at exactly 8 p.m. Under the theme "In search of your light," three national teams, including Korea's Hanwha along with the United States and the United Kingdom, will in turn paint the night sky with each country's colors.
The first to go is the United Kingdom team. To songs including "Soda Pop" from the Netflix animated film "K-Pop Demon Hunters," it will open the festival with specially produced fireworks. Next, the United States team will stage a spectacle of light slicing through the darkness to the grand strains of works such as "Carmina Burana: O Fortuna."
Hanwha's performance will begin at 8:40 p.m. From a fireworks show inspired by van Gogh's "Starry Night" to an emotive production set to singer Lee Sora's "The Wind Blows," it will present a stage where music and fireworks blend.
The viewing highlight of this year's fireworks festival is Wonhyo Bridge. "Tower fireworks" using Wonhyo Bridge and a more varied "bridge production" will be added. In particular, the "decalcomania" production, in which fireworks unfold symmetrically on both sides of the Han River's airspace centered on Wonhyo Bridge, is considered the festival's signature. To allow people to enjoy the fireworks from afar with a wide field of view, wide-angle production has been strengthened.
As a large-scale event drawing around 1 million people, organizers are also focusing on safety management.
Hanwha will deploy more than 5,000 people on site, including 1,200 employee volunteers, the largest number ever. It will monitor conditions using the "Orange Safety" system, which measures real-time crowd density, and KT's 5G network slicing technology. It will also operate a joint situation room with relevant agencies, including the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the Fire and Disaster Headquarters, and the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.
Online viewing will be available for residents who cannot make it to Yeouido in person. Hanwha plans to livestream the Yeouido fireworks show through its official YouTube channel, "HanwhaTV."