Tuesday was the opening of the Korean Queer Cultural Festival in Seoul. This is what its closing parade looked like last June.

But when participants showed up for the opening ceremonies this year, this is what they found.

The anti-LGBT protesters had set up in front of the Seoul city hall hours before the event was due to take place.

Turnout for the kickoff was sparse, in large part because organizers had discouraged people not directly involved in organizing it to attend citing concerns about the outbreak of the respiratory illness known as MERS. But anti-LGBT activists have mounted an all-out campaign to shut down the Queer Cultural Festival, including successfully blocking the group's application to hold a pride parade by filing competing permit requests for the parade route.