The annual event has continued for more than 20 years since its first edition in 2000

A fireworks and drone show held Friday at Yeouido Hangang Park in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, marks the eve of the Seoul International Fireworks Festival 2026. [Yonhap]
A fireworks and drone show held Friday at Yeouido Hangang Park in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, marks the eve of the Seoul International Fireworks Festival 2026. [Yonhap]

Hanwha Group's flagship corporate social responsibility event, the Seoul International Fireworks Festival, kicks off its main program Saturday evening at Yeouido Hangang Park. The festival carries a total budget of 13 billion won ($9.56 million) this year, with safety management alone accounting for 4.5 billion won of that figure.

According to business circles, Hanwha Corp. allocated the 13 billion won budget to host this year's edition of the festival. As the largest privately organized festival in South Korea — drawing more than 1 million visitors annually — the organizers set aside roughly one-third of the total budget for safety management.

The safety management budget marks a roughly 17 percent increase from 3.85 billion won last year. To ensure the massive crowd passes without incident, Hanwha deployed more than 5,000 safety and crowd-control personnel across the Yeouido area — the largest such deployment in the festival's history. This year, the organizers placed equal emphasis on safety management, backed by record staffing levels and advanced monitoring technology, alongside the spectacular fireworks display.

A range of cutting-edge technologies will also be in full operation. The organizers will run "Orange Safety," an app developed in partnership with a mobile carrier that measures real-time crowd density, and will monitor on-the-ground conditions through a closed-circuit television integrated control system using KT Corp.'s 5G network slicing technology.

Hanwha Group has held the festival for more than 20 years since its inaugural edition in 2000, skipping only years when cancellations were unavoidable — such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. The event costs around 10 billion won each year and generates no separate revenue, yet the group continues to run it as a signature social contribution initiative in keeping with the management philosophy of "Together, Further" championed by Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn.

Kim urged organizers to stage the fireworks "higher and bigger" so that more citizens could enjoy the show. In response, the viewing zones, previously concentrated in central Yeouido, were expanded to areas near Mapo Bridge, Wonhyo Bridge and Hangang Railway Bridge.

After the festival concludes, a volunteer corps of about 1,200 Hanwha employees will carry out a cleanup campaign across Yeouido Hangang Park. For those unable to attend in person, a live stream of the fireworks show will be available on the official YouTube channel "Hanwha TV."


forest@heraldcorp.com