The Seoul city government said Thursday it has mapped out comprehensive measures to safely host its annual fireworks festival this weekend, anticipating a crowd of up to 1 million people.
The 2023 Seoul International Fireworks Festival, organized by Hanwha Group with the participation of various teams from all over the world, is scheduled to take place at Han River Park in Yeouido on Saturday night.
Considering a typical audience of nearly 1 million, the city government said it will cooperate with Hanwha to give top priority to people's safety.
First of all, the government said it will establish a comprehensive safety headquarters at the event venue and increase safety personnel by 26 percent compared with last year. An on-site safety inspection is planned for Friday, and ambulances, fire trucks and emergency medical workers will be dispatched there Saturday.
With the event set to kick off at 7:20 p.m., 36 patrol boats will began operations to restrict private vessels in the concerned river areas from 2 p.m. Parts of Yeouido's roads close to the event venue will be completely blocked from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday.
Also on Thursday, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo ordered related authorities to thoroughly prepare safety measures for the upcoming festival, according to his office.
Han specifically instructed the Ministry of Interior and Safety, police and fire authorities, the city government, and other relevant authorities to jointly conduct safety inspections on the festival venue as a precaution and take various measures to cope with possible safety concerns during the event.
Source: Yonhap News Agency