This weekend five of us took the bus down to Busan Gwangalli Beach for their Fishermans Festival. The forecast kept predicting heavy rain for the weekend, but fortunately that moved to Friday so Saturday was perfectly clear and sunny. This was my first trip back to Busan since I came for four days in Febuary. I thought the bus ticket was $7, which is what it said on the website, but at the terminal they charged us $9!.

In Busan we got a Metro Day pass for $3 and headed to the station for Gwangalli Beach. When we arrived they had the usual markers for a Korean Festival. Two giant balloons were flying in the sky over the beach. The beach was lined with tents for crafts, displays, and packaged food items for sale.

They had a guy holding a bow and arrow describing how to fire, ladies in traditional dress showing how to make korean wine (soju), and an area where children were painting traditional paper fans. There was also these giant fish hats that people could make, straw weaving crafts, and traditional paper windmill making. Outside along the street they had more traditional crafts for sale such as small traditional boxes. They even had a Turkish guy selling Turkish jewellery and souvenirs from Istanbul.

One interesting tent was an art exhibit made from recycled household articles, such as plastic bottles, lids, cans, etc. They made a giant tree outside the tent, inside were various items such as a historic turtle ship, a pair of sandals, a bench for a doll to sit on, a map of korea, and a replica of the Gwangalli Beach bridge made from rolled up newspapers.

At one end of the beach they had a stage setup and we heard loud drum beats so we headed over. I then heard what sounded like arabic music so we rushed to see what it was. There was a group of Korean Bellydancers dancing to middle eastern music. Or at least, a korean interpretation of what they think belly dancing is!

Video : Korean Bellydancers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMJNkS5K rqI

Near the middle of the beach they had an inflatable wading pool setup where people could go in and try to catch live fish that were swimming around. It looked fun, and I might have done it if the weather was warmer. People ended up being completely soaked as they ended up on all fours and being splashed by everyone, or diving back in as they caught a fish but it slipped out of their hands again.

After that we wanted lunch and they had the food area at the centre of the beach. This time they had some different foods from other festivals as I didnt want Bibimbap again for the third time. They had a large sized fish they were grilling, mussels, baby tempura fish, and seafood pancakes. I opted for the fried fish since I hardly get to eat fish, and we shared the baby tempura fish together.

Next to the food area was a large open space where they were doing some traditional dances. Lots of fisherman dressed in white were doing some sort of routine with their fishing nets. They were pushing a fake boat around while the others formed two lines. Then they pushed the boat up down the middle of the two lines and went round and did it again.

Then they formed a circle and were swinging the nets in their arms and passing it around the circle. There was another circle beside them of all the fishermens wives. First they danced around in the circle. They they put fishing baskets on their heads and went round in the circle to one spot where a lady was collecting the catch from all the baskets.

Later they erected a giant maypole and everyone danced around. Then they pulled in some foreigners from the crowd, including our group, so we had to dance around the maypole waving our arms in the air for a few minutes.

Video : Fishermans Dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNDutx56 GII

Then we waited for the street parade which was expected to start around 4pm. First they had a marching band, followed by girl guides. Then they had these flag twirlers which was really good. They were all wearing shiny sequin outfits, and had different sized korean flags. When they did their twirling shows they were actually hiding about five other flags behind the korean flag at the front.

Video : Parade Flag Show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAPqs46r 8Kk

Then they had a royal procession. First there were royal trumpeteers followed by noblemen. After that they had people carrying a royal carriage where the King sat wearing his crown and waving at the crowds. This was followed later by lots of noblewomen and children in traditional dress. The women had these giant wigs with long pleated hair wrapped around many times.

Video : Street Parade
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq0R1XFY Euw

The parade was really good but I was wondering what any of this had to do with fishermen?? Then they finally arrived. The fishermen in white with their nets came again and danced. Behind were their wives with the baskets on their heads. After that were some children with giant fish heads. They also had fish sculptures, a chinese dragon, and other singing children. They also had these chinese style dragons, which I think was a lion, with two people inside. There were about six of them and they all were doing dance moves together.

Then they had a bit of a musical parade. They had these people in hawaiian style grass skirts doing some kind of song and dance. This was followed by lots of koreans girls in indian saris, and boys in male kurtas, doing a bollywood dance. After this was a group of cheerleaders with pom poms.

Video : Parade Dancers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8o9qphE cBE

We all really enjoyed the parade, it had a cast of thousands, even though most of it had nothing to do with fishing whatsoever! Then we had to head back to the station to take the bus to Daegu. There were evening events, drawing in the nets at sunset, lighting lanterns and putting them out to sea, fireworks, and beach cinema, but we needed to get back home.

At the bus station we didnt realize there are two counters and two sets of platforms for two bus companies. The one we went to sold us tickets for a bus an hour later so we had time to kill. The Busan Nopo bus terminal is quite nice, like a long airport terminal with departure gates. On the upper level were several restaurants. We ended up at a chinese restaurant with two spelling mistakes; they called themselves "Chines Past Food Restaurant"!

Since my Andong trip Sat Mar 29 this is week 5 in a row I have gone out Saturday. Just noticed I have all but two Saturdays booked upto Jun 4! Next weekend is Royal Ancestral Ceremony in Seoul. Following Holiday Weekend am off to Jeju Island for four days! Ulsan Whale Festival is coming end of May and Haeundae Beach Sand Sculpture Festival early June! I'm going to be bankrupt and exhausted soon! :)