Anseong festival installs safety mats after tightrope walker falls over 8 feet
The performer was treated and discharged after a support collapsed during a traditional tightrope show, prompting criticism of the city's safety preparations.
A tightrope walker performs at the Namsadang Baudeogi Festival in Anseong, Gyeonggi, on Sept. 30, 2022.
YONHAP
The city of Anseong, Gyeonggi, installed safety mats under a tightrope performance at its Namsadang Baudeogi Festival only after a performer fell during a show, raising criticism that safety management had been inadequate.
The city had not placed mats under the rope, citing the need to keep the performance traditional.
According to the Anseong city government on Saturday, a tightrope walker fell about 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) to the ground during a performance at around 11:40 a.m. on Friday at Anseong Machum Land, where the festival is being held.
The performer was taken to a hospital for treatment and has since been discharged.
The performer was on the rope when a support holding the rope in place collapsed, causing the fall, according to reports.
The Anseong city government had not installed safety mats on the ground at the venue, saying the festival needed to preserve the traditional style of tightrope walking. The mats were installed only after the accident. The festival runs through Monday.
The need for safety mats had already been raised within the city government.
"There had been several suggestions within the city to the department in charge of the festival to install safety mats, but they were not adopted because it was said that the characteristics of traditional tightrope performances should be taken into account," a city official said. "The members of the traditional performance troupe, who are tightrope experts, also handle installing the equipment, and it seems there was some kind of error during the installation this time."
"Following this accident, we have rechecked the safety management and emergency response systems across the entire festival site and reinforced safety measures," the official added.
The Baudeogi Festival is Anseong's largest traditional cultural festival and is based on namsadang nori, a traditional performance by itinerant troupes that includes tightrope walking, mask dance and acrobatics.
Namsadang nori is designated as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage of Korea and is inscribed on Unesco's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The festival has been held every autumn since 2001.
It is the second accident involving casualties at a city-hosted event in Anseong in a month.
On Sept. 19, a truck owned by the Anseong city government plowed into booths during a charity flea market. A woman in her 40s who was volunteering at the event and her teenage son were killed, and five others were injured.
BY HAN YOUNG-HYE [[email protected]]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
