Seoul to hold friendship festival to link foreign, local residents through beauty, culture
Summary
Seoul will host the second Better Together Seoul Culture & Wellness Festival at Oullim Square of Dongdaemun Design Plaza on Friday. The event will bring local and foreign residents together through Korean beauty, wellness, lifestyle and cultural activities. Programs include health checks, cultural workshops, international booths, performances and exercise counseling. About 30 volunteer interpreters will assist participants who are not fluent in Korean.
Key Facts
- The festival will run from 1:30 to 5 p.m. on Hangeul Day, a national holiday.
- Embassies from Colombia, Vietnam and Uzbekistan, a Spanish cultural center and international student associations will participate.
- The world culture zone will present traditions from Vietnam, Spain, Uzbekistan, India, Peru and the Philippines.
- Participants aged 18 or older will receive 1,000 points on Seoul’s Wrist Doctor 9988 health app.
- As of 2024, Seoul had roughly 250,000 registered foreign residents and welcomed more than 10 million international tourists annually.
Volunteers and families participate in a multicultural children’s festival in Seoul, May 10, 2025. Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government
Seoul will host a cultural festival on Friday, bringing together local and foreign residents to experience Korean beauty, wellness and lifestyle programs, city officials said Tuesday.
The second Better Together Seoul Culture & Wellness Festival will run from 1:30 to 5 p.m. at Oullim Square of Dongdaemun Design Plaza, a landmark in central Seoul. Friday is Hangeul Day, a national holiday.
The event is hosted by the Seoul Foreign Resident Center and supported by the city. The embassies of Colombia, Vietnam and Uzbekistan and a Spanish cultural center plan to attend, while international student associations will help run booths.
A K-beauty and health zone will offer artificial intelligence skin analysis, personal color diagnosis and face painting, along with blood pressure and blood sugar checks, a virtual reality safety program and CPR training.
A K-culture zone will feature activities such as making key rings shaped like the "gat," a traditional Korean horsehair hat, as well as calligraphy and folk games including "jegichagi," in which players keep a shuttlecock aloft with their feet, and "tuho," or arrow tossing.
A world culture zone will introduce the traditions of six countries: Vietnam, Spain, Uzbekistan, India, Peru and the Philippines.
New this year is a mobile fitness test that measures muscle strength and flexibility, followed by exercise counseling. Participants aged 18 or older will receive 1,000 points on Wrist Doctor 9988, the city's health app that rewards users for walking. A taekwondo show combining demonstrations of the martial art. A stage performance has also been added.
About 30 volunteer interpreters will assist foreign residents who are not fluent in Korean and help run the booths.
Stage programs include an opening ceremony, music performances and a prize drawing.
As of 2024, Seoul is home to roughly 250,000 registered foreign residents and welcomes over 10 million international tourists annually as part of Korea's broader push to expand its global tourism footprint.
A city official said the programs were designed to let residents experience one another's cultures directly rather than simply learn about them.
"Following last year's event, we’ve designed diverse, hands-on programs this year that allow people to truly experience different cultures firsthand rather than just observe them," said Kim Myeong-joo, head of global urban policy for Seoul. "Through the shared mediums of health and culture, we hope this serves as a catalyst to break down barriers of nationality and language, helping local and foreign residents forge deeper connections."
Details are available at global.seoul.go.kr.
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.
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