Korean Dream Hangang Grand Festival to be held on Liberation Day

Former Prime Minister Chung Un-chan speaks during a press conference for the Korean Dream Hangang Grand Festival at the Press Center in central Seoul, Friday. Chung serves as president of the festival's organizing committee. Yonhap

The Korean Dream Hangang Grand Festival is set to take place along the Han River on Aug. 15, the 80th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese occupation. It also marks the 80th anniversary of the two Koreas’ division.

According to the festival’s organizing committee, Friday, it will host the event at Ttukseom Hangang Park on National Liberation Day under the theme “Beyond the Miracle on the Han River, to National Harmony and a Unified Korea.”

“The Korean Dream Hangang Grand Festival will be more than an event for the country’s 80th anniversary of independence. This will be a gateway to national harmony. People will discuss the country’s future and vision here,” former Prime Minister Chung Un-chan said during a press conference for the festival at the Press Center in central Seoul, Friday. Chung serves as president of the Korean Dream Hangang Grand Festival’s organizing committee.

“This year is also the 80th anniversary of the two Koreas’ division. The festival will be a turning point for the two Koreas’ unification.”

Along with Chung, former deputy speaker of the National Assembly Chung Woo-taik and former floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea Lee Jong-kul also joined the press conference as the committee’s co-chairs.

The committee added the festival features an aerial art show with some 1,200 drones along the Han River at night. It has been raising funds for the show since March with donations from citizens.

“Thousands of people have donated for the show so far,” a committee official said. “Each drone will join together for the show aspiring the two Koreas’ unification.”

The event is also expected to mark the 10th anniversary of the “New Era Unification Song Campaign,” which began in 2015 with the hit single "One Dream One Korea," performed by BTS’ Jung Kook and EXO’s Baekhyun — which was later featured during the 2018 inter-Korean summit.

The campaign’s seventh official song, titled “Korean Dream, Shine O Glorious Light,” produced by renowned music director Hong Dae-sung, will also be performed during the festival by Son Yi Ji Yoo, a powerhouse quartet of female vocalists that appeared on “Voice Korea,” accompanied by the Seoul Grand Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Suh Hoon.

The festival is also an outcome of the establishment of the Korean Dream 10 Million Unification Campaign Organizing Committee in 2022. The committee said its goal is to heal the national division left by Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule over Korea and the 1950-53 Korean War and build a unified Korean Peninsula, contributing to global peace.

Around 20,000 people gathered for the group’s action rally in 2022, followed by 30,000 in Yeouido in 2023 and another 30,000 gathered last year at Imjingak Resort–Pyeonghwa Nuri Park in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. This year’s rally, which began last month in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province and traveled through 13 cities and provinces across the country, was part of a national campaign to build momentum and support for unification.