Everland to kick off Sanrio-themed spring flower festival on Friday

By Lee Hae-rin

Everland’s iconic spring flower festival will kick off Friday and showcase a wider range of collaborations with the Japanese entertainment company Sanrio, the amusement park’s operator, Samsung C&T, said Monday.

Last year, the country’s largest theme park in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, hosted a flower festival featuring six pastel-toned Sanrio animal characters from Japan, including signature characters like Hello Kitty, My Melody and Kuromi.

Dubbed “Flower Carnival,” this year’s festival will run until June 15 and showcase an expanded collaboration throughout its gardens, featuring a total of nine Sanrio characters. The character lineup this year includes three beloved characters — Hangyodon, Keroppi and Usahana — which have never been seen through collaborations with other countries outside of Japan.

Everland’s Four Seasons Garden, which spans around 10,000 square meters and features 1.2 million spring flowers of more than 100 species, will have 11 Sanrio character-themed zones.

The windmill stage will present a special food truck standing next to a 7-meter-tall Cinnamoroll statue, which offers a limited number of Cinnamoroll-themed popcorn buckets and soda-flavored ice cream every day.

The Hangyodon-themed game arcade will also feature a lucky roulette game that offers character merchandise as gifts, while a huge Keroppi wish fountain will rotate 360 degrees in the central fountain.

Following the Sanrio story that Kuromi, who celebrates her 20th birthday this year, turned into a fortune teller, the amusement park will offer a tarot card reading zone where a fortuneteller will read tarot cards with a deck of Kuromi-themed cards.

The amusement park will also present several character-themed attractions, merchandise collections and food and beverages.

An original dance performance featuring the Sanrio characters will also be presented every day.