Busan Fireworks Festival returns tonight with 80,000 shots over Gwangalli

Busan's night sky is about to get very busy. The 21st Busan Fireworks Festival runs from 7 pm to 8 pm on Saturday, Nov. 7, centred on Gwangalli Beach, with views also from Igidae and Dongbaek Island.

About 80,000 fireworks will go up in one hour, lit in tandem with the Gwangan Bridge's multimedia lights.

What's on the programme? 🎆

Part one is an invited international show by China's SUNNY. Part two is Hanwha's Busan Multi Fireworks Show, themed "Busan's Dream" and split into three chapters: excitement, boldness and joy.

Expect the festival's signature 25-inch giant shells, plus Niagara and wave effects. A closing "curtain call" salvo thanks residents and on-site workers.

Before the main show, there is a Blue Eagles air show (the Air Force's aerobatic team), a beach "Book-nic" reading picnic, chalk art and local indie bands. From 6 pm, a "Fireworks Prologue" shares residents' stories and song requests. At 6:50 pm, guests including the captain of a pilot Arctic route voyage, an Asian Games yachting gold medallist and the first foreign ticket buyer press a button to start the countdown.

Tickets and safety

About 17,000 paid seats are available. Roughly 3,000 added since last year were all sold to foreign tourists. For the first time, Busan residents get 10% off R and S seats, and youth culture pass seats have doubled.

The city has deployed about 7,000 safety staff and named 42 priority zones. CCTV tracks crowding live, and the sand and beach road have phased headcount limits. There are 12 LED crowd-information vehicles (up from 11), eight medical booths, 32 ambulances and four emergency routes. KakaoMap shows live crowding and a friend-finder.

Getting there and getting home

Parts of Gwangan Bridge have been closed since Nov. 2, and road controls around the venue widen in stages today. Afterwards, crowds will be steered to different exits. Extra subway trains and concentrated city bus dispatches are planned.

Can't make it? It streams on the city's "BusanTube" YouTube channel, Busan MBC and KNN.

Last year's 20th edition also packed Gwangalli, and this one adds more seats, more safety and one more reason to look up.