27 June 2023
The World Food Festival 2023, Pretoria’s week-long international food and culture festival, kicked off with its opening ceremony on Monday, 26 June at the Korean Cultural Centre in South Africa.
The World Food Festival was first launched in July last year, organized and hosted by the Korean Cultural Centre in partnership with embassies of participating countries and The Diplomatic Society. The festival's mission is to provide a venue for visitors to learn and experience various cultures with the theme of the food in South Africa where numerous different cultures coexist. The first edition concluded successfully, recording hundreds of visitors.
In this year’s edition, a total of eight countries will participate—South Korea, South Africa, Brazil, Iran, Philippines, Nepal, Türkiye, and Sri Lanka. The festival will be held for a week between 26 and 30 June at the Korean Cultural Centre and offer cooking classes, photo and traditional craft exhibition, and a play zone in which visitors can try traditional games from the participating countries.
The opening ceremony was attended by around a hundred people including ambassadors and diplomatic corps from participating countries. The South Korean Ambassador Chull-joo Park opened the festival welcoming the visitors with his speech. The ceremony was followed by congratulatory remarks from the ambassadors of each participating country, screening of short films about the food and culture, and a tasting event.
Ambassador Chull-joo Park said, “It is a great honor, yet tremendous burden and responsibility to host a festival that aims to introduce—not only the culture of South Korea, but—various cultures. I believe food is like a window that symbolically represents the culture of a country. I hope that this festival will serve as the window for the visitors to experience various cultures through food, ultimately expanding their understanding of other cultures.”
The main program of the festival offers cooking classes of national dishes that represent the eight participating countries from 27 to 30 June. South Korea, as the host country, will present traditional banquet food of Korea: Galbi-jjim (braised beef short ribs) and Japchae (glass noodles with stir-fried vegetables).
Jungbum Chun, director of the Korean Cultural Centre, said, “Our mission, as the Korean Cultural Centre, is to introduce Korean culture to people in South Africa and to expand cultural exchanges between the two countries. However, I also hope that, even if it's just a small contribution, the Centre can help broaden the arena of communication where various cultures are harmoniously seen and understood.”
KCC