Sorry for the delay, but here’s my post about the 2009 NY Chuseok Festival I went to on September 27th.

First off, here’s a little introduction about the festival and the holiday. Chuseok or in English, Korean Harvest, is a holiday for Koreans which is equivalent to Thanksgiving for Americans. (During this time, the Chinese have their Moon Cake holiday haha). Anyways, every year there would be a festival held in New York City for two days. There would be tons of tents set up selling food and other Korean related products. It’s a great time to experience the Korean culture. :D The biggest event during this two day festival is the last day where there are performances by popular KPop stars. Some past famous celebrities that have performed are BoA, Fly to the Sky, Wonder Girls, JYP, Chae Yeon, etc. This year, Brown Eyed Girls, LeeSsang, WAX, and more came. Of course, the first three are the most popular.

This year Chuseok is like one month earlier. Usually the festival is held in October. This was my second time going (first time was like two years ago–when I saw Fly to the Sky and Chae Yeon). I knew some friends who are now into Kpop, so I asked if they wanted to go with me…as oppose to going with my dad like two years ago. We went on the last day, since that’s the day when the performances happen. We met around 12 and the performance usually don’t start until past 3. For the first 3-4 hours, we just hung out. We looked around, trying out food samples, took pictures, etc. It took us about half an hour to decide where to eat. LOL In the end we chose to eat kimbap and some meat on a stick; nothing fancy. After eating we went to watch some korean sumo wrestling. It was quite entertaining. They were having a wresting contest between teens. Around 3 -4, we decided to go get spots to watch the concert. We had to wait for like 2 hours before the famous performers came out. The first to come out was WAX. I’m not familiar with her music, but I did like her song “Oppa”. If I remember correctly, she performed 3 songs. Next is LeeSsang! I was really disappointed they didn’t sing “Ballerino”. LeeSsang really got the crowd hyped up. And then FINALLY Brown Eyed Girls got on stage. Everyone went wild. The first song they sang was “Abracadabra”. The ‘saucy hip dance’ looks so much better live lol. Next they sang a ballad, “You Raised Me Up” followed by “How Come”. The girls are beautiful and have great voices. They really showcased their vocals in the song “You Raised Me Up”. Ga-In is so pale, but beautiful.

It was raining the whole day, but I was glad it stopped raining during the performances =)

Here are some pictures;

Where they held the festival this year.

The stage.

WAX.

LeeSsang. It was annoying when those people in the front, who had a SEAT, stand up and block the view of the people in the back who had to stand for the whole thing.
BROWN EYED GIRLS

Fan Videos of the performances. Recorded by my friend.
Abracadabra

You Raised Me Up

How Come

Current Mood: Happy