Cultural planners are in charge of the cultural industry of a nation or region, with the objective to develop that nations' or regions' culture and art through the application of their knowledge and expertise. The number of cultural planners who wants to help develop the culture here in Ulsan is on the rise and among them, is Hong Jiyoon. He is the delegate of I LOVE ULSAN, and his focus is on young people, especially young people, as he looks to develop a “youth culture" here in Ulsan.

1. I LOVE ULSAN is an unfamiliar concept to readers. Please tell us more about I LOVE ULSAN and the kinds of activities I LOVE ULSAN do.

"I LOVE ULSAN is an enterprise as well as an organization established for the purpose of overcoming the limitations of a region through cultural development with the help of the youth who love Ulsan. I LOVE ULSAN does not receive any additional support or funds from government. We try raising cultural awareness by holding various festivals such as the Beer-and Hanbok days we have held recently."

2. Festivals like the Pillow fight and Water Gun Festivals often require large numbers or participation in order to succeed. How do you attract citizens?

"Festivals planned by I LOVE ULSAN are mostly social festivals, so people find information about these festivals on social networking services (SNS) and are quite keen to participate in these festivals. Nowadays, most people make use of SNS's so we promote these festivals on these services.We have managed to reach quite a broad market, from people in their early teens to people in their forties, and they all take part after seeing or hearing about our promotional work on these sites. The Water Gun Festival managed to attract between 5000 and 10000 members of the public."

3. You have held the Water Gun Festival recently. What were the reasons and ideas behind this festival?

             ”We felt that there were not enough festivals that people in their twenties could enjoy here in Ulsan. Other existing festivals are mostly festivals where people watch others perform or participate. So we would like to make festivals that are small, but active, so that everyone can be a part of the fun and excitement.Thus, we planned the Water Gun Festival. Even the process of planning these festivals are more interesting than watching festivals, as people enjoyed planning festivals together. By paying money to other agencies for helping us plan these kinds of festivals, we are able to make the festivals that we want. In short, we want to make festivals that include active participation- like tossing water balloons or shooting water guns- rather than festivals where people just observe."

4. What is the biggest difficulty of running an operation like this?

             "Most of all, events that we have created have been mostly people-oriented events. So we sometimes have difficulty solving misunderstandings and meeting the expectations of people. We also face financial difficulty at times as we organize events and festivals independently and we do not receive any additional support from the government."

5. What was the most memorable festival you have planned and why?

"Hanbok day was a really special day. It was a festival which required participants to wear a Hanbok and since there are not that many opportunities for young people to wear a Hanbok, we were lucky enough to be sponsored by a Hanbok enterprise, which allowed people to buy Hanbok's at a reduced price. People also brought lots of diversity to this day by wearing different Hanbok's and doing flash mob dances."

6. What events do you have planned for the future?

"We will host Zombie run next summer. Festivals of I LOVE ULSAN are chosen based on the success of these festivals, which might have been planned or held in other countries or regions. The main thing is, is that we want to bring these festivals to Ulsan so that the youth can enjoy these festivals, even though it might not always exclusively include regional or cultural characteristics."

7. In your opinion, what is the role of a culture planner?    

             "Events occur temporarily, but culture is made of progressing one-off events in succession. We have arranged a great diversity of flash mobs up until now, a small one-off event, but it could become part or form new kind of culture in the long term. After creating a one-off event, other people, cities or regions starts to copy that and gradually it becomes part of a culture. So, I think that that cultural planner should aim to contribute to or enhance a region or areas' culture."

8. What does the word festival mean to you?

             "I think the festivals should bring out the "freaky" side of people. Through festivals, people are able to express everything that is engrained within us like desire, violence, fun, and love. Also I think that a festival, is an idea which we managed to materialize into a celebration."