The opening ceremony of the 63rd Baekje Cultural Festival was held on Friday, September 29th at 6 PM at the main stage of Geumgang Shingwan Park in Gongju-si, Chungcheongnam-do, with the attendance of major domestic and international figures and tourists. Around 4,000 invited guests, including Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon, South Chungcheong Province Governor Ahn Hee-jung, Cultural Heritage Administration Administrator Kim Jong-jin, National Assembly members Jeong Jin-seok and Lee Myung-soo, Japanese Ambassador to Korea Nagamine Yasumasu, and Chinese Deputy Ambassador to Korea Jin Yang-gwang, attended the opening ceremony to celebrate the opening. Under the theme of “Meet Baekje, the Origin of the Korean Wave,” the opening ceremony expressed the pride in Baekje culture as the “origin of the Korean Wave” that contributed to the development of ancient East Asian culture and ancient Korean culture, as well as the will to be a new starting point for the Korean Wave that is spreading throughout the world today. As a pre-event, there was a traditional Korean music performance by the Chungnam Yeonjeong Gugak Band in Gongju City and a congratulatory performance by the Junyi City Performance Band in Guizhou Province, China. The main event, which began at 7 p.m., officially began with the ‘Honbul Waking Ceremony’ where the soul flames collected from Ungjin (Gongju) and Sabi (Buyeo) were combined into one and then transferred to the torch stand. Following the congratulatory address by Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon, the Governor of South Chungcheong Province, Chungnam Provincial Council Speaker Yoon Seok-woo, the Japanese Ambassador to Korea, the Chinese Deputy Ambassador to Korea, King Muryeong and Queen Muryeong, members of the National Assembly, and others took the stage one by one. The distinguished guests simultaneously pressed buttons to fire salutes in time with the ‘Opening Declaration’ by Gongju Mayor Oh Si-deok and Buyeo County Governor Lee Yong-woo, performing the opening ceremony. This is a simplified opening ceremony protocol befitting a global festival. The opening ceremony's theme performances were as follows: △Act 1 Remember the Cultural Powerhouse, Great Baekje △Act 2 Enrich All People: Baekje's Guardian Goddess △Act 3 Great Baekje, Leading the Way in Ancient Cultural Exchange △Act 4 Ancient Baekje Style Meets Modern Hallyu △Act 5 Finale, and were presented in the form of a musical performance combining video graphics and performance for 20 minutes. The Baekje Hanhwa Fireworks Festival, sponsored by Hanwha Group, decorated the autumn sky over Geumgang Shingwan Park in Gongju-si at around 8:15 PM that evening, after the official opening ceremony and the congratulatory performances by "Girlfriend" and "Bromance." The fireworks, which were presented in three themes: Act 1 2017 Hallyu Korea, Act 2 Hallyu of Cultural Exchange, and Act 3 Meeting Baekje, the Origin of Hallyu, combined lasers, special lighting, video, and sound from a multimedia system designed in the shape of Gongsanseong Fortress, a World Heritage Site, to produce an epic of emotion. Meanwhile, the 63rd Baekje Cultural Festival will run until October 5th in Gongju-si and Buyeo-gun, South Chungcheong Province, with 160 programs under the theme of “Meet Baekje, the Origin of the Korean Wave.”