Taekwondo World Peace Festival to kick off in Seoul in September

Taekwondo demonstration team performs during last year’s Taekwondo World Peace Festival in Seoul, Sept. 4. / Courtesy of Organizing Committee of Taekwondo World Peace Festival

By Baek Byung-yeul

Seoul will create a festival mood next month as the world’s largest taekwondo peace festival will be held in downtown Seoul.

The Taekwondo World Peace Festival will take place at Gwanghwamun in Seoul, Sept. 2 to 4, with the slogan “Connected to the World.”

The annual festival was established last year to commemorate Taekwondo Day on Sept. 4. The date means a lot to the sport as it was Sept. 4, 1994, when taekwondo became an Olympic sport at an International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in Paris.

The festival is co-hosted by five organizations -- World Taekwondo (WT), the Global Taekwondo Support Foundation for Peace and Unification (GTSF), Kukkiwon (the taekwondo governing body established by the Korean government), the Korea Taekwondo Association (KTA) and the Taekwondo Promotion Foundation.

According to the organizing committee, the festival is to raise the presence of taekwondo in the world and interest in the sport so taekwondo can maintain its status as an official Olympic sport in the 2028 Summer Olympics. Furthermore, the festival is to promote the success of the 2018 Winter Olympics, which will take place in the Korean resort town of PyeongChang, and to share a vision for peace around the world and on the Korean Peninsula.

The organizing committee said it plans to invite 300 famous taekwondo figures including International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) President Ri Yong-son and Secretary General Kim Seung-hwan. The committee added the festival will feature more than 20,000 taekwondoists here and 100,000 general audiences as well.

World Taekwondo President Choue Chung-won, right, and Park Yang-woo, chairman of the organizing committee for the 2017 Taekwondo World Peace Festival, pose at an event to mark its beginning at the committee's office in southern Seoul, July 27. / Courtesy of Organizing Committee of Taekwondo World Peace Festival

The WT, the global governing body of taekwondo, marked the beginning of the festival on July 27 by launching the festival organizing committee in Seoul.

“2017 will be remembered as a critical turning point for taekwondo after the WT held the most successful World Taekwondo Championship in history,” WT President Choue Chung-won said. Park Yang-woo, chairman of the organizing committee, added “We will make the best Taekwondo World Peace Festival in the world for our taekwondo family.”

Unlike last year’s one-day inaugural event, this year’s event will be a three-day-long festival with more diverse kinds of events.

The Taekwondo World Peace Festival will begin with a taekwondo demonstration at Gyeongbok Palace in downtown Seoul at 1 p.m., Sept. 2. One hundred sixty taekwondo performers from eight countries will display taekwondo performances to begin the festival.

The performance will be followed by a fashion show with taekwondo costumes. The K-Tigers performance team, famous for their taekwondo dance performances, will also showcase their choreography. Also, there will be a taekwondo forum, featuring global taekwondo figures at The-K Hotel in southern Seoul.

The second day will be even more entertaining.

After a series of taekwondo performances by local and overseas performance teams, the World Taekwondo Parade 8000 event will follow on Sept. 3.

During the World Taekwondo Parade 8000, about 8,000 uniformed taekwondoists will gather in downtown Seoul for the parade to walk the 1.8-kilometer stretch from Sungnyemun to Gwanghwamun. After the parade, the participants will also conduct a“poomsae” (demonstration) event for the Guinness World Records.

A board-breaking event will be featured and soprano Sumi Jo and K-pop singers will give a concert as well.

The organizing committee said it will be a tough quest to garner 8,000 people in downtown Seoul, but they will try their best to have 8,000 taekwondoists on the second day as the number 8,000 will represent 80 million taekwondoists around the world.

The organizing committee added they are expecting 100 people from the WT’s demonstration team; 100 from the Kukkiwon demonstration team, 300 from the Army, Navy, Air Force and police demonstration teams; 80 from the Eighth U.S. Army demonstration team; 250 from Kukkiwon; 100 from the KTA; 100 senior taekwondoists; and 6,810 from taekwondo organizations in Seoul to take part in the parade.

On Sept. 4, the Taekwondo World Peace Festival will move to Taekwondowon in Muju, North Jeolla Province, which hosted this year’s Taekwondo World Championships last month. There, a Taekwondo Day celebration ceremony will start at 4:30 p.m.