▲ Grand Blue Festival promotional material

Yangya-gun County announced that the "2024 Grand Blue Festival," a beach film festival, will be held in Yangyang, the sacred place of surfers, for three days from October 11 to 13 under the theme of "Enjoying the Sea."

The 2024 Grand Blue Festival will be hosted by Yangyang-gun, organized by the Grand Blue Festival Planning Group, and supported by the Yangyang Cultural Foundation, along with the newly added Yangyang Small Movie Theater (House 3), film screening and event programs will be operated at the Surf Beach Beach Beach Theater (House 1) and JD Yang Rooftop Theater (House 2).

The county said, "We have been promoting the Grand Blue Festival, a beach movie screening event, since 2017 to create a variety of beach culture with the surfing industry," adding, "This festival was also led by director Lee Hyun-seung, who directed the films 'Jukdo Surfing Diary', 'Blue Salt', 'Time and 'Blue in You' following last year."

The 2024 Grand Blue Festival marks the beginning of the festival at 5 p.m. on the 11th through the opening ceremony "Grand Blue Sunset" against the backdrop of a sunset beach at Surfy Beach near Junggwangjeongri Beach. The opening ceremony will be accompanied by local residents, surfers and visitors, and music performances will also be arranged to allow them to fall in love while looking at the sunset sea.

The films to be screened at this festival are △Grand Blue △ No Sun △ Divertimento △ Concrete Green Island △ Ladies of Rochefort △ Wine Family △ Toto of the Window, and the films and running times are different for each theater. You can visit the theater on the same day and watch it, and in the case of Yangyang Small Theater, you can make a reservation by phone (033-673-7050, seat reservation is not available).

In particular, a conversation time with director Lee Sung-min is also scheduled after the concrete green island is screened at the Yangyang Small Theater on October 12, and a conversation time with director Kim Sung-soo is also scheduled after the screening of "No Sun" at the Surfy Beach Beach Beach Theater on the same day, giving movie fans a special experience.

In the case of the Surfy Beach Theater, there is no distinction between the screen and the audience's seats, and it provides a special experience where you can freely enjoy movies and nature at the same time while sitting on the sand. Visitors can freely enjoy movies and the sea together against the backdrop of the dense sea and the night sky.

In addition, at 11 a.m. on the 13th, a beach clean event (blue wave campaign) will be held in Surf Beach.

For surfers, beach clean is not a special event, but a very common culture. It will naturally spread the meaning of protecting the marine environment to tourists who come to the beach to learn or relax.

A festival official said, "If you want to escape from the noise of daily life and fall into the sound of waves and the story in the movie for a while, I hope you will visit the Grand Blue Film Festival, which has always come this year."