Thursday, October 15, 2009

Suwon Hwaseong Cultural Festival

Last weekend we went to the Suwon Hwaseong Cultural Festival. Apparently it is a very big festival that attracts a lot of tourists. We spent time walking around, viewing traditional dance shows, visiting the food festival, and watching an amazing parade!

The floats were massive and had a lot of pyrotechnics shooting out of them. Most of the bands and groups in the parade had over 100 each. There was definitely shock value with the massive amounts of people. The end of the parade had a recreation of the King's visitation of his father's tomb. The processional alone had over 1,500 people and a ton of horses.


See that building at the top of the mountain right above the right balloon? That's how high we hiked when we walked the wall a few weeks a go. That building is where we took a bunch of pictures.



We walked in to the tourist information center to find a phone and found out there was a traditional hairstyle and hat exhibit in the basement. We decided to check it out... I think I may have found some wonderful hairstyle ideas for my wedding day!


I think I could do wonders with a veil with this headpiece.


This is the back view.


Or this is a nice option. I especially like the purple cushion in the middle. I could coordinate my wedding colors in to the cushion! Maybe this could be better for my bridesmaids.


I think these hats would look lovely on our groomsmen!


Or maybe my dad could wear this one as he walks me down the aisle. Yes, I think that would be best.

This is a model of the Hwaseong (the wall) made out of croissants, cookies, and pretzels.




A traditional dance show.



Their hats have long ribbons on them and they twirl their heads in circles and the ribbon makes cool patterns. I have a video below.





Koreans are crazy about visors. They wear them so big that they are see-through and cover their whole faces. They handed out free cardboard visors at the festival. They folded up on the top to look like a dragon and ears.

And the parade begins! In come the flags!




This is a cart that takes you on a tour around the wall.

What's this lady doing?


Andrew loved the transformer.

They had amazing floats!


These people were probably important, but we don't know who they are.

Banging on the drums.


This is a creepy Statue of Liberty. It was actually a person who started moving.


These guys came to guard the crowd so they wouldn't block the parade route.







There are cannons on the front that shot out fire.

There were ambassadors from around the world wearing their traditional clothing. There was an American guy wearing khakis and a sports coat. Nice traditional outfit, America.

Ambassadors from Thailand.

Now see! There's that beautiful hair! I think that would look stunning on my bridesmaids!



He totally was blocking my view!










These are the King's concubines.







In comes the Queen being carried by men.

There she is!

And there she goes...



In come the King's two daughters.


Nice hats.


Pretty sweet band uniform if you ask me.




After the parade we walked around the food festival. For about $0.80 we could buy a cookie and decorate it ourselves.


Lainy's cookie is on the left, ours is on the right.


Stirring a huge pot of soup with my imaginary spoon.

This guy was roaming the streets.

There was a traditional dance show.









Enjoy these videos of the festival!

Taekwondo - wood breaking.


Taekwondo - wood breaking.


This was the grand finale.... so awesome!















At the end of this video you can hear me say "AH-NE-YO!" which means "NO!" because the lady just stood right in front of me.












I will upload more videos to my youtube account. I'll let you know when they've been posted!

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