The Gyeonggi International Cosplay Festival will be held from Wednesday to Sunday in Bucheon, a city west of Seoul.

Cosplay involves dressing up like animation, video game or comic book characters. 

On Saturday, professional cosplayers will parade along a 1.8-kilometer route around the Bucheon City Hall, showcasing their costumes. Music and other performances will entertain visitors.

The highlight of the festival is the Gyeonggi International Cosplay Championship, in which cosplayers from Korea and abroad compete for prizes.

The competition will be held at an outdoor stage at the Park Zone of Bucheon Visual Culture Complex over the weekend, with the participants competing in three categories -- pose, dance and performance.

Bands will play the theme songs of animations and cartoons onstage from Thursday to Sunday. Various busking performances will be held at the festival’s 150-meter-long Food Zone. A separate stage event will allow the audience to show off their talent.

The festival is hosted alongside the Bucheon International Comics Festival. For more information, visit www.bicof.com or call (032) 310-3072.

By Im Eun-byel (silverstar@heraldcorp.com)