While 1 million people are expected to flock to the ‘Seoul World Fireworks Festival’ to be held at Hangang Park in Yeouido on the 5th, the ‘Seoul Light Hangang Bitseom Festival’ is being held at the same time, so it is pointed out that full preparations are needed to prevent safety accidents. there is.
The police judged that it was dangerous for fireworks festivals and other events with large crowds to be held at the same time and requested Seoul City to change the schedule for the Bitseom Festival twice, but the city strengthened its safety plan and pushed ahead with the festival due to scheduling reasons.
The Seoul Light Hangang Bitseom Festival is Seoul’s largest waterside laser art + citizen participation festival held for 10 days at Hangang Park in Yeouido.
During the festival, six laser art works will be exhibited. The main work, ‘Maze Dream’, is 27m high and has an area of 120㎡, and ‘Beyond Wave’ is 24m high and has an area of 168㎡.
The problem is that these huge works cause inconvenience in movement when large crowds of people gather, and safety accidents can occur.
When the fireworks festival is underway, many people move to find so-called ‘best spots’ to watch. Some people move while others stop to admire the work, or if they collide with the work, accidents big or small can occur.
It is reported that at the joint meetings of related organizations held twice previously, the police requested a change in the schedule due to concerns about such safety accidents.
However, instead of changing the event schedule, the city decided to strengthen safety measures and go ahead with it. The city explained, “The Bitseom Festival is an event held sequentially on six islands in the Han River, and if the installations are removed and reinstalled, it will take at least two more weeks. If the weather gets colder, the number of festival participants may decrease.”
It is known that police and Seoul city officials visited the site again on the 2nd and inspected the safety fence.
The police announced that if there are concerns about crowding due to the Bitseom Festival on the day, the on-duty mobile unit will be on standby to dispatch, and that about 1,320 people from 23 mobile units will be deployed to the Yeouido area where the festival is held.
Mayor Oh Se-hoon also visited the fireworks festival and Bitseom Festival site on the 29th to inspect the safety preparedness, and announced safety supplementary measures on the 30th, such as increasing the number of safety personnel to about 100 and deploying them intensively.
On the day of the fireworks festival, it was decided to operate only four works on the west side of Mapo Bridge after 8:30 p.m., when the fireworks festival ends.
In addition, the safety of ‘Maze Dream’ and the sub-work ‘Light, Island, Star’, which are not in operation, will be doubled with safety fences on the day. The city announced that it will install ‘streamlined’ rather than ‘straight’ fences for the remaining works operated on the day to help citizens move safely and smoothly.
The city is also implementing comprehensive safety measures in preparation for the fireworks festival. From 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. on the 5th, ‘Yeouidong-ro’ (southern end of Mapo Bridge ~ in front of 63 Building) around the event venue will be completely controlled, and all vehicles, including buses, will take detours. Subway lines 5 and 9 will operate 18 and 52 times, respectively, and Yeouinaru Station on line 5 can pass through without stopping.
The organizer, Hanwha Corporation, as well as the Fire and Disaster Headquarters, Yeongdeungpo-Yongsan-gu, and the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, plan to establish a ‘Comprehensive Safety Headquarters’ at the event venue and operate it together.
Source: www.nextdaily.co.kr
