The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Minister HWANG Hee, MCST) hosts and the Korea Tourism Organization (President AHN Young Bae, KTO) organizes the 2021 WELCOME DAEHAKRO from September 27^th (Monday) to October 29^th (Friday).

WELCOME DAEHAKRO is an annual festival offering various genres of Korea’s performing arts, including non-verbal performances, traditional performances, musicals, and plays. The theme of this year WELCOME DAEHAKRO is RE:BOOT. Since the start of the festival in 2017, the event has provided memorable performances every fall for the Koreans and foreign tourists. Actress Park So-dam from the internationally well-known movie “Parasite (2019)” was appointed as honorary ambassador of performing arts tourism in Korea by KTO. Park will be hosting the opening ceremony for the 2021 festival and also be starring in three video clips that will be on the Youtube Channel of the WELCOME DAEHAKRO to promote Korean performing arts. Marking the 5^th year of the festival, the event will be serving as opportunities to view various genres in Korean performing arts.

   Daehakro,[1]located in the center of Seoul, is a major “art & culture street” of Korea with about 150 theaters clustered in the area. Stretching from Jongno to Hyehwa-dong Ratary, Daehakro was designated as a “cultural” zone operated as a “no cars zone” on weekends.

  On the opening day of the festival, videos of non-verbal performances such as “Nanta”, a representative performance, will be broadcast live online with the Daehakro tourist attractions. This autumn event will be providing audience with various performances that were difficult to meet in person due to the COVID-19.

In WELCOME DAEHAKRO, audience will be able to enjoy nine outstanding performing arts, including musicals and plays until November 14^th at Seokyeong University Arts Center. For the special edition to promote the performing arts festivals there will be concerts on October 13^th both on and offline and fans will be able to meet their K-stars via online on October 18^th. For more specific information on the performance, online live-streaming time and reservations, please visit the official website of WELCOME DAEHAKRO (http://www.welcomedaehakro.com) available in Korean, English, Japanese, and Chinese.

In addition, various special promotion events are being held to attract foreign tourists. Overseas audiences, including China, Japan, and Taiwan who are interested in Korean culture, Hallyu, can take part in online performance participation event. Foreign reporters in Korea are able to participate in promoting WELCOME DAEHAKRO and a special broadcast featuring the charm of Korean performance will be produced and broadcasted.

All offline events of WELCOME DAEHAKRO will be conducted in strict compliance with quarantine guidelines to prevent the spread of COVID-19. To prevent the spread of the virus and strictly meet the guidelines, all audiences need to check symptoms when entering the theater, leave one seat empty between people, write an entry list, prohibit eating inside the hall, and wear a mask inside the venue.

Minister HWANG from MCST said “I hope that this festival will be more than meaningful to both tourists at home and abroad who may have missed the opportunities of enjoying performances and meeting with people. Also I do want Korean performance to be effectively communicating with overseas audience and tourism industry officials, leading to tangible results of attracting foreign visitors in the future.”