South Korea-ALSHARIQYA August 12: Tens of thousands of boy scouts gather at a huge K-pop festival in Seoul, Friday, as South Korea seeks to save the camp that has faced great problems, in an event intended to highlight the "power of Korean culture."
But even as the government spent millions of dollars in emergency funding to rescue an event with disastrous public relations results, criticism is mounting of Seoul's approach, from K-pop fans to public servants.
The quadrennial World Jamboree gathered 43,000 Scout members in the northern province of Gwila, but an unprecedented heatwave caused mass disease, and teams from the US and UK left early, amid reports of poor conditions in the camp. the camp. Finally, a tropical storm forced the full evacuation of participants this week.
Since then, boy scout troupes have been dispersed across the country and sent on government-sponsored cultural tours, but the K-pop Superlive concert, which includes performances by notable bands including The Newgins and The Boys, is expected to bring together , all camp participants in a huge wrap up of the event.
Seoul's Minister of Culture, Park Bo-gyun, said in a statement this week that "high-level artists will powerfully highlight the essence and charm of Korean culture" at the concert.
However, criticism escalated after it became clear that a popular TV music program, which was scheduled to show some artistic performances in the camp, was suddenly canceled for undisclosed reasons.
Rep. Song Il-jung faced criticism from K-pop fans after he said the military should allow the BTS stars, who are currently taking a break with two of them serving in the military, to reunite and perform at the camp.
And the specialized journalist, Isaac Choi, wrote on the X platform (the new official name of “Twitter”), that the plan reflects “a terrible totalitarian idea that the country owns K-Pop.”
South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that about 1,000 employees of public institutions, such as the Korea Development Bank and the Korea Electric Power Company, were "mobilized" to assist with the concert.
