The city of Busan and the 2030 Busan World Expo Pan-citizen Invitation Committee will hold a “Walking the People’s Expo Desire” event at Busan Station Plaza and Busan Port North Port Waterfront Park from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm today.
Under the slogan X4ME, this event, in which about 1,000 citizens and foreigners will participate, creates a nationwide boom ahead of the BIE’s on-site inspection in early April.
It is the plan of the city and the pan-citizen attraction committee to show the enthusiasm of the candidate cities without adding or subtracting by showing citizens’ voluntary participation.
In addition to walking events, various programs are held at different times.
First, from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm, a pre-ceremony event will be held at the plaza of Busan Station. In addition, about 10 experience booths such as tagging, photo booths, tattoo printing, face painting, bookkeeping booths, and various souvenir presentation events are prepared to provide a fun experience time for the whole family.
Then, from 2:00 p.m., the main event will be held for 30 minutes. On the main stage following the opening announcement, a congratulatory performance of assorted drums and percussion by the Busan Metropolitan Art Troupe will be held, followed by the ‘Expo Cheer Parade’ in which multicultural people from around 20 countries residing in Korea dress up in traditional costumes of their countries.
At the same time, participants also create a performance praying for the attraction while surrounding the expo logo in a huge circle in the center of the plaza.
When the main event is over, the participants are divided into 4 groups from each EXPO alphabet, and the walkathon begins in earnest with youth cheerleading, taking the course from Busan Station to Bukhang Waterfront Park in the area where the 2030 Busan World Expo is scheduled to be held.
While the event was in progress, at the Eurasia Platform media wall at Busan Station, ‘BUSAN IS GOOD FOR EXPO’, which consists of photos of the participants and many people who actively support the bid for the 2030 Busan World Expo, will be displayed. The phrase will be transmitted as a video to further heighten the enthusiasm.
In addition, panels containing information related to the 2030 Busan World Expo are installed in advance at the Bukhang Waterfront Park, where the walkathon is held, so that visitors can learn about ‘what the 2030 Busan World Expo will bring to me’ and ‘what future it will bring to us’..
When the participants arrive at the end of the course, they can enjoy an exciting busking performance consisting of Korean traditional music busking, a youth symphony orchestra, and a K-POP cover dance.
The city and the pan-citizen attraction committee limited the number of participants to around 1,000 in consideration of the venue conditions and safety management and received online applications.
In addition, starting with this event, it is expected that not only the Expo week, which is the period of visits by the international exposition organization’s on-site inspection team, but also various events throughout March will continue the fever of Busan World Expo 2030 by 16 districts, various civic groups, and functional groups.
