[Anchor]
The Songdo Beach Festival, which recreates the former Songdo Amusement Park—once a representative summer tourist destination in Incheon—opened last weekend. Families seeking refuge from the heat are visiting the festival site, which features an artificial sandy beach and various water play facilities.
Reporter Song In-ho has the story.
[Reporter]
Songdo Amusement Park was a premier summer destination in Incheon until the 1990s.
Equipped with an artificial beach created by drawing in seawater, a Ferris wheel, Viking rides, and various other amusement facilities, it was packed with family vacationers in the dead of summer.
However, with the development of Songdo International City starting in the 2000s and the subsequent establishment of a large-scale used car export complex, all traces of the amusement park have now disappeared.
Reviving the nostalgic sentiment of the old Songdo Amusement Park, the Songdo Beach Festival kicked off last weekend at Songdo Moonlight Park.
Citizens exhausted by the heatwave blew away the heat, if only for a moment, at the large swimming pool and various water play facilities set up in the urban lake park.
[Jung Chang-won / Yeonsu-gu, Incheon: We couldn't go on vacation this week, but with an event like this right in front of our house, we are enjoying it so much.]
The festival site features an artificial sandy beach equipped with beach umbrellas, as well as nostalgic amusement facilities such as a carousel, Viking rides, and pedal boats.
[Park Si-eun / Yeonsu-gu, Incheon: There are a lot of things to play with here, including Viking rides and various amusement facilities, so I think I'll be able to have a lot of fun.]
To prevent heat-related illnesses amid the heatwave hovering around 35°C (95°F), indoor safety zones where visitors can lower their body temperature have also been set up.
[Lee Jae-ho / Mayor of Yeonsu-gu, Incheon: The amusement park facility, bearing the meaning of 'resting,' was created in 1937 (during the Japanese colonial period). The focus is on recreating those memories and reviving the identity that Songdo and Yeonsu-gu held in the past...]
Running through the 15th, the Songdo Beach Festival operates from noon to 9:00 PM, and the water park and auxiliary facilities are completely free of charge, excluding some paid experiential facilities.
(Video footage by Lim Dong-guk | Screen courtesy of Yeonsu-gu, Incheon)
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