Ulsan's 99-resident random jury recommends scrapping 20 of 84 city-funded events

The 100 million won threshold puts a floor under the money involved. Twenty events at that minimum come to 2 billion won ^[2], and any spending above the minimum on any of them adds to the total. The report does not give the budget of any single event, the total across the list, or any sign that another local government plans to copy the format. By count, the jury removed about 24% of the city's large events ^[1].

The jury has a record to beat. According to Seoul Economic Daily, festival evaluation committees and overhaul attempts by earlier city administrations failed to produce clear results ^[7]. A committee sits inside the administration, and an overhaul belongs to whoever is mayor. A jury drawn by lot has no standing tie to the departments that run the events. The same report says local festivals have drawn criticism for formulaic programmes built around invited singers ^[6]. The concerts on the list include Immortal Songs in Ulsan, the Family Love Concert and the Ulsan Office Workers' Song Festival ^[4].

Nothing has been cut yet. "We will convey the citizen jury's views to the project departments and closely review the effectiveness of the projects, the appropriateness of the budget invested and the need for future operation before proceeding with work on the 2027 budget," Lee Young-hwan, Ulsan's fiscal planning officer, said ^[10].

If departments accept most of the list, the 2027 budget loses at least 2 billion won of event funding ^[2]. If they defend their programmes in review, a handful of events die and the jury joins the evaluation committees as another reform without a clear result ^[7]. The third possibility is that the 20 go and the money moves to new events. Ulsan Citizens' Solidarity wrote in a commentary that the decision was "a meaningful first step toward correcting the problem of the proliferation of festivals and events in Ulsan" ^[11]. The group said abolition should become a chance to focus on festivals built on Ulsan's history, culture, industry and local character ^[12]. On that path the number of events falls and the budget may not.

I think the concerts are the likeliest to go, since invited-singer programming is the format the report ties to waste ^[6]. The three economy and industry events, ULSAN EXPORT PLAZA, the Ulsan Innovation Conference and the Ulsan Health Expo ^[5], are the likeliest to come back. Their departments can claim trade and investment returns, and a song festival cannot. The case against that view is that the jury was drawn to match the whole registered population ^[2]. That makes any restoration look like officials overruling residents, and the political cost could keep most of the list intact.

The 2027 main budget will show which view was right ^[8]. If funding for the 64 surviving events ^[4] plus any replacements comes in at or above this year's level, residents will have reshuffled Ulsan's event spending without cutting it.