Anseong Festival Adds Safety Mats After Tightrope Performer Falls

A tightrope performer fell during a traditional performance at the Anseong Baudeogi Festival, prompting the city government to install safety mats that had not been in place when the accident occurred.

The incident happened at about 11:40 a.m. Friday at Anseong Matchum Land in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province. The performer, known in Korean traditional performing arts as an eoreumsani, fell approximately 2.5 meters to the ground while performing on the rope.

The performer was taken to a hospital for treatment and has since been discharged, according to the city. The fall reportedly occurred after a support structure securing the rope collapsed while the act was underway.

The accident has raised questions about safety management at the city-organized cultural event. Anseong had conducted the traditional tightrope performance without protective mats on the ground, citing a desire to preserve the performance’s customary format. The city installed mats only after the fall and continued the festival, which is scheduled to run through Monday.

A city official said other municipal staff had recommended the installation of safety mats to the department responsible for the festival on several occasions. Those recommendations were not adopted because of concerns about maintaining the characteristics of traditional tightrope walking.

The official said members of the traditional performance troupe, who have expertise in tightrope acts, also handle installation of the equipment. The city believes there may have been an error during that process. It has since reviewed the festival’s broader safety management and emergency response arrangements and added safeguards, the official said.

The Baudeogi Festival is Anseong’s largest annual traditional culture event. It is based on Namsadang Nori, a form of itinerant folk performance recognized by South Korea as important intangible cultural heritage and inscribed by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage of humanity. The festival has been held each autumn since 2001.

The latest incident follows another serious accident at an Anseong event last month. On Sept. 19, a city-owned truck drove into booths at a sharing-market event organized by the municipality, killing a woman in her 40s and her teenage son and injuring five other people. The two cases are likely to intensify scrutiny of how the city assesses risks and implements preventive measures at public gatherings.