Slackliner Jaan Roose to take on 525-foot line above central Seoul

The sky above Gwanghwamun in central Seoul will look a bit different on Thursday, when slackliner Jaan Roose is scheduled to walk on a line between two high-rise buildings.

Roose will walk a 160-meter (525-foot) slackline strung between Koreana Hotel and Donga Media Center in Gwanghwamun on Thursday, an event organized by Red Bull Korea, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government. He will walk the line twice that day: at 1 p.m., marking the first slackline performance in Korea, and again at 4 p.m.

The line will be suspended 120 meters above the ground.

Slacklining is an extreme sport in which athletes walk, run or balance on an elastic line — measuring 2.5 to 5 centimeters (0.98 to 1.97 inches) in width — strung between two anchors.

The city will stop the performance if the average wind speed reaches 10 meters per second (32.8 feet per second) or higher or if gusts reach 15 meters per second or higher. Depending on weather forecasts, the event may be rescheduled to Wednesday or Saturday.

The city will also deploy safety personnel and separate spectator areas from pedestrian ones for the performance.

Roose is known for crossing a 3.6-kilometer (2.2-mile) line across the Strait of Messina between mainland Italy and Sicily in 2024. He is also the first to execute a double backflip on a slackline.

The athlete became interested in traditional Korean tightrope walking after seeing a performance during his visit to the country in 2022, according to the city.

Electronic boards at Koreana Hotel and Donga Media Center will display the slackline performance. It will also be livestreamed on the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s official YouTube channel.

Visitors can try slacklining on lines set 30 and 50 centimeters above the ground at the nearby Cheonggye Plaza in central Seoul on the day of the event. Skateboarding and breakdancing performances will also take place in the plaza.

“We will showcase Seoul’s charms to the world by attracting international sporting events that use [its] spaces as their venues,” Cho Sung-ho, the head of the city’s Tourism & Sports Bureau, said.

BY LEE TAE-HEE [[email protected]]