On Thursday, August 8, Minister YU In Chon of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) visited Jeju Island’s art and tourism scene. Attending the Jeju International Wind Ensemble Festival (JIWEF) for the first time as the minister, he watched the opening performance, met representative artists from Jeju, and listened to their voices. He also visited the “Road of Patriot Hero KANG Seung Woo” and the Monument for Korean War Veterans by bicycle, showed his respects, and inspected preparations to host visitors along “Jeju Black Pork Street” during the peak season.

Invited to attend the opening of the 29th Jeju International Wind Ensemble Festival (JIWEF) and listen to opinions of local artists in Jeju

JIWEF, an international wind ensemble festival held in Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, began as a wind music festival in 1995 and now includes wind, percussion, and composition competitions. Last year, the festival hosted more than 40,000 visitors, and this year, visitors can also enjoy the golden melodies at Jeju’s outdoor attractions, including Jeju Stone Park and Seogwipo Cheonjiyeonpokpo Falls. Minister YU was invited to the 29th JIWEF to watch the opening performance and cheer for the successful hosting of the festival.

The minister also listened to the opinions of local artists before the opening performance. He stopped by “Haenyeo Kitchen,” a company that operates performance tourism based on Jeju’s culture “Haenyeo,” meet with officials, and discussed measures to revitalize local culture and arts with more than 20 local elder and young artists at the Jeju National Museum. In particular, representatives of the theater company Seire, the corporation Maro, and the Jeju performance team Dumoak, which were selected as Jeju’s “2024 Representative Arts Groups” through a contest held by the MCST in July, joined the meeting to voice out their concerns.

Visit to the “Road of Patriot Hero KANG Seung Woo” and the Monument for Korean War Veterans by bicycle and checking preparations to host visitors along Black Pork Street

Minister YU In Chon visited the “Road of Patriot Hero KANG Seung Woo” and the Monument for Korean War Veterans in Seongsan-eup, Jeju’s representative tourist attraction, travelled the “Fantasy Bicycle Path” by bicycle, and paid his respects to the victims of the Korean War. This was his third visit to the battlefields, following his visit in June to the security battlefields in Gapyeong and his visit to the battlefields in Yangpyeong last week. He also checked the information system to revitalize bicycle tourism.

He also saw “Black Pork Street” (Geonip-dong, Jeju-si), a local business with the theme of Jeju native black pigs, and checked with merchants, including the chairman of the Jeju Chilseongro Shopping Street Promotion Business Cooperative, to see how things have changed since the recent “fat grilled pork belly” issue.

“Nowadays when the population is declining and localities are disappearing, I think art has the power to bring people together,” said Minister YU In Chon, and “We will actively support local art and tourism activities, including JIWEF, which has been attracting local and foreign tourists and producing talented young artists for the past 29 years, so that local and foreign tourists can experience the colorful beauty of Jeju.”