How Goyang Turned RESCENE May's Birthday Into a City Campaign

At 7:40 in the evening on 19 August 2026, the singing fountain at Ilsan Lake Park in Goyang, just northwest of Seoul, ran a show set to RESCENE’s best-known songs, lit in gold — the colour the city had chosen to represent May. Earlier that day, the Goyang city government had posted a birthday video for her on its own YouTube channel, and large display boards at the Goyang Tourist Information Center were carrying images supporting her. None of it came from her agency or her fandom. It came from a municipal promotions team, working through the calendar of an appointment it had made seven weeks earlier.

Korean cities appoint singers, actors and athletes as 홍보대사 (hongbo daesa) — ambassadors, public-facing representatives who lend their name and image to a place’s tourism and culture campaigns. The certificate ceremony is the part that makes the news. What happens afterwards usually does not. Goyang’s birthday campaign for May is the clearest illustration anyone has produced of what the months after the ceremony can actually look like.

What Goyang put out on 19 August

The city built the day around three things, all of them municipal products rather than fan projects.

• A video on the city’s official YouTube channel. Goyang published birthday content for May on its own channel, @goyangcity, on 19 August 2026, according to Incheon Ilbo.
• Display boards at the tourist centre. Large display boards at the Goyang Tourist Information Center showed images supporting May, Incheon Ilbo reported.
• A fountain show at 7:40 p.m. At Ilsan Lake Park, the singing fountain ran a programme set to RESCENE’s best-known songs and lit in the gold colour the city used to represent May. Goyangin reported the show was staged at 7:40 p.m. on 19 August with the group’s signature melody and gold lighting; SBS News dated both the birthday content and the fountain show to 19 August 2026, May’s birthday.

Ilsan is the district of Goyang where May grew up. Goyangin’s headline for the day called her ‘일산의 딸’ — a daughter of Ilsan.

The video: two schools, a set of juniors and the mayor

The centrepiece was the video, and its casting is what makes it unusual. Rather than assembling stock tourism footage, the city went to the schools May attended in Goyang.

Incheon Ilbo reported that the video carries support interviews with juniors from those schools alongside a congratulatory message from Goyang mayor Min Kyung-seon. Goyangin identified the two schools as Jangchon Elementary School and Daehwa Middle School, and reported that Mayor Min appears in the video making a hand heart — the small finger gesture that reads as a heart shape, a standard affectionate sign-off in Korea — and saying the city is proud of her.

Goyangin also reported specific lines from the students. One elementary-school junior says she has collected 1,180 photographs of May. Middle-school juniors say: ‘연습생 시절을 버텨내고 자랑스러운 선배가 되어줘 고맙다’ — thank you for getting through your trainee years and becoming a senior we are proud of. In Korean schools, 선배 (seonbae) means a senior who came through the same institution before you; the word is doing the work of the whole video.

Where the ambassadorship started: 2 July 2026

The birthday campaign was not a one-off gesture. It ran out of an appointment made seven weeks earlier.

On 2 July 2026, Goyang appointed RESCENE — Woni, Liv, Minami, May and Zena — as the city’s ambassadors, MyDaily reported. Incheon Ilbo noted the city described them as its 민선9기 1호 홍보대사, the first ambassadors of its ninth elected municipal term, a phrase that marks the appointment as the opening item of the current administration’s promotional programme.

The connection is May’s: MyDaily reported that she attended both elementary and middle school in Goyang. At the appointment, the group said: ‘멤버 메이의 고향인 고양특례시 홍보대사로 위촉돼 뜻깊게 생각한다’ — that it was meaningful to be appointed ambassadors for Goyang, May’s hometown. Mayor Min Kyung-seon said he was glad to be working with RESCENE as the first ambassadors of the ninth elected term. The group promised to promote Goyang’s attractions and culture through video content and social media. MyDaily also reported that RESCENE already held ambassadorships for Geoje, Suwon and Gyeongju, each tied to a member’s hometown.

What May said back

SBS News reported May’s response to the city’s video. She said: ‘고양특례시의 영상을 보고 진짜 감동했다’ — that she was genuinely moved watching it. She added that she would work hard so the city could be proud of her: ‘자랑스러운 사람이 될 수 있도록 앞으로 열심히 하겠다.’

The city answered in the same register. Incheon Ilbo quoted a city representative saying that, like the sincere hearts of fans who cherish and support the artist, her hometown of Goyang would always be a dependable fence around her and would sincerely support the futures of May and RESCENE. A city official told the outlet: ‘고양에서 성장한 메이가 이제는 고양시 홍보대사로서 시의 매력을 알리는 데 함께하고 있다’ — that May, who grew up in Goyang, is now helping to promote the city’s appeal as its ambassador.

How the campaign travelled

The reception was picked up by news outlets rather than measured by the city itself.

• SBS News reported that the birthday video drew more than 800 comments within a day of being posted.
• YTN covered the campaign in its 지금이뉴스 segment on 20 August, reporting that the online response was substantial; the segment’s title credits the city’s own promotional team for the work.
• As read through the YouTube Data API on 27 August 2026, the upload on the Goyang city channel had 69,952 views, 6,361 likes and 1,177 comments.

For readers outside Korea, that last line is the useful one: a municipal government channel, whose usual output is civic notices and tourism clips, carrying a video with those numbers because of an ambassadorship it signed in July.

What an ambassadorship actually does after the certificate

Read together, the July appointment and the August birthday describe a working relationship rather than a photo opportunity.

The city gets content it can publish itself, on its own channel, using assets it already owns — a lake park fountain, display boards at a tourist information centre, access to public schools and a mayor willing to appear on camera. The artist gets her hometown institutions on the record about her career. Neither side needed a commercial campaign to make it happen; the appointment was the mechanism.

And the ambassadorship remains live. The group’s stated commitment at the July appointment was to promote Goyang’s attractions and culture through video content and social media, and the city’s representative framed its support as ongoing rather than tied to one date on the calendar.

Key takeaways

• On 19 August 2026, Goyang marked RESCENE member May’s birthday with a video on the city’s official YouTube channel, display boards at the Goyang Tourist Information Center and a 7:40 p.m. fountain show at Ilsan Lake Park set to RESCENE songs in gold lighting.
• The video features juniors from Jangchon Elementary School and Daehwa Middle School — the two schools May attended in Goyang — plus a congratulatory message from mayor Min Kyung-seon, per Incheon Ilbo and Goyangin.
• The campaign flows from a 2 July 2026 appointment: Goyang named RESCENE (Woni, Liv, Minami, May and Zena) its ambassadors, described by the city as the first of its ninth elected municipal term.
• SBS News reported that May said she was genuinely moved by the video and would work hard so the city could be proud of her.
• SBS reported the video drew more than 800 comments within a day; YTN covered it on 20 August, reporting a substantial online response.
• MyDaily reported RESCENE already held ambassadorships for Geoje, Suwon and Gyeongju, each tied to a member’s hometown.