As the “period of national mourning” was declared until November 5th due to the Halloween disaster in Itaewon, Pusan National University (PNU) finally postponed the Siwol-Je Festival.

The University Headquarters held the President's Meeting on October 31st and decided to postpone the Siwol-Je Festival by a week. Accordingly, some programs, such as Healing Concert, are expected to be modified.

The "Hyowon Green Farm Festival" of the College of Natural Resources & Life Science, which was scheduled to be held on November 1st, has also been postponed to next week, and the detailed schedule will be discussed later.

On October 29th, tens of thousands crowd gathered for a Halloween event in Itaewon, Yongsan-gu, Seoul. The number of dead climbed up to 154, with 103 injured people. The government declared the "period of national mourning" until November 5th. As a result, Siwol-Je, PNU Festival, and various local festivals such as the "Busan One Asia Festival 2022 K-POP Concert" had been canceled or postponed.

Kim Yo-Seop (Dept. of Korean Education, 20), the Strategic Planning Director of the "Emergency Planning Committee" said, “It seems that there will be changes in the process of the event, such as the alternation of guests or reducing the event that was originally scheduled to be held. As Siwol-Je has been delayed by a week, we will do our best to make a safer festival by identifying and establishing disaster-related manuals and safety regulations.”

Reporter Kim Hyun-Kyoung

Translated by Seo Hae-Seong