On the 21st of May 2023, we welcomed the 15th Seongbuk Global Food Festival Nurimasil. The festival is an international event open to all cultures to experience unity and learn more about other cultures. Embassies from 18 countries in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas opened booths to showcase their traditional foods. Every country showcasing their cultural delicacies for a fair price. At the festival, local stores and various organizations in Seongbuk-gu also operated 40 food booths, held 35 fun experiences and a flea market.
In attendance at the festival was the Seongbuk-gu Mayor Lee Seung-ro. At the opening ceremony, he said, “It is an attractive festival that transcends time and space to experience the taste and culture of the world and experience cultural diversity values in Seongbuk-dong, which is called a ‘roofless museum’ due to numerous historical cultural assets representing our modern and contemporary times.”
The festival was also zero waste festival. The organizers created the festival under the theme <Flavors that Move Me> to help people recover post-pandemic. According to the organizers, the festival was “to provide an opportunity to experience cultural diversity and understand each other and also to share new ways of living in the time of climate crisis.”
I was extremely moved by the all the food I ate, from the sticky rice from Cambodia to the bean cake of Nigeria. I enjoyed all the food and if I could, I would have kept on eating as much as I could. Luckily, I collected the business cards for the restaurants so I could go back to eat some more.
In addition to the food booths, even restaurants in the area where giving discounts to people to enjoy their delicacies. In addition to the delicious foods, the streets were filled with laughter and leisure. There were musical performances and crafts at different times to entertain people. One of the performances I enjoyed was from the Orchestra of Dream Seongbuk.
It was indeed a fun festival. For more information, check out their website https://nurimasil.net/
Hope to see you next year.
[성북마을기자단 티티 기자]