The 19th Mapo Naru Saeujeot Festival, running Friday through Sunday at World Cup Park, features a "Flag Bridge," a "Memory Tunnel" and a Mapo exhibition hall showcasing past festival posters, archival photos and the inaugural issue of the district newsletter.
Mapo-gu will mark the 19th Mapo Naru Saeujeot Festival — running Friday through Sunday at Peace Plaza in World Cup Park — with a series of retrospective installations inviting visitors to look back on the district's history through past festival posters, archival photographs and old issues of the district newsletter.
Three dedicated spaces bring that history to life: a "Flag Bridge," a "Memory Tunnel" and a Mapo exhibition hall, set up inside and around the festival grounds to deepen the meaning of a festival now in its 19th year.
The first stop is the Flag Bridge on Sangam Bridge over Bulgwangcheon stream, which connects the district office to World Cup Park. Festival posters from every previous edition of the Mapo Naru Saeujeot Festival have been turned into flags lining the bridge, letting visitors trace the event's history as they cross — and building anticipation for the upcoming 20th anniversary.
Past the Flag Bridge and inside the festival grounds, the Memory Tunnel awaits near the waterside stage at Munhwa Naruteo Plaza. The installation brings together photographs of the old Mapo Naru ferry landing, the Han River waterfront, streets, residential neighborhoods and major facilities, offering a sweeping visual journey through the district's past and present.
The story continues next door at the Mapo exhibition hall, where the district newsletter "Naegojang Mapo" takes center stage. Twenty-seven cover pages — starting with the inaugural February 1996 issue — are displayed in chronological order, capturing major local news and the everyday lives of residents across the decades.
The covers chart Mapo's transformation: scenes of kimchi-making, the ground-breaking of the Sangam main stadium, the 2002 World Cup and the opening of Mapo Central Library. For visitors who want to dig deeper, 30 back issues are available to browse, offering a window into the news and lifestyle information of the time.
Alongside this, visitors who follow Mapo-gu's official social media accounts will receive a keycap as a gift.
"A single old photograph or a page from a newsletter holds stories of Mapo that will bring back warm memories for adults and give children the joy of discovering what their neighborhood once looked like," District Mayor Yoo Dong-gyun said. "I hope families and neighbors enjoy the saeujeot festival together, sharing old memories and making new ones."
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