City Council Member Jang Ga-young Criticizes Mokpo Festival

This is part of her activities to directly participate in the festival's operation process to understand the atmosphere and problems on-site.

In particular, she mentioned that the influence of these groups seemed to be significant in the process of outsourcing services such as event operation and stage setup to external companies.

Council member Jang strongly criticized the method of selecting food stall vendors.

She pointed out that despite the need to expand participation fairly through competitions or public calls for youth restaurants or gourmet events, stalls are being allocated in a closed manner based on specific personal connections and local/familial ties.

She emphasized that compared to festival budgets in other local governments, this amount is sufficient to hold an event for three days and could achieve much higher quality. She argued that efficient operation is needed rather than blaming a lack of budget.

Council member Jang stated that with the festival's format repeating annually without change, citizens are criticizing it as too predictable.

As a first-term council member, she feels this frustration and emphasized that new changes and development are desperately needed for Mokpo's flagship festival.

Based on her experience living in Germany, Council member Jang Ga-young suggested directions for improving the Mokpo Port Festival.

She expressed her aspiration that an atmosphere similar to Germany's Christmas festivals could be created in Mokpo, building a cohesive and immersive festival by forming a single 'village'.