October is gonna be a busy month in Busan. There will be a flurry of festival all over the city tackling for your attention. One of those is the ‘Busan One Asia Festival’ (부산원아시아페스티벌), which is a showcase not only of Hallysu star but also promotes Asain culture in a its beauty. The festival will play host to a whole array of artists and styles of most genres. The aim being to create a new face of Hallyu festivals. There is also another festival to keep any eye out for, that festival is ‘Busan Jagalchi Festival’ (부산자갈치축제). The slogan for this year’s festival is “Oiso! Boiso! Saiso! all unique slangs from the Busan dialect. Which would translate as Come! See! Buy!. So lets take a look into these 2 huge festivals that are fast approaching.
Busan One Air Festival:
This festival is scheduled to start from the 1st of October and will keep going all the way till the 23rd of October. The location is not set to one place exclusively and instead will be held here and there. In places like BEXCO, Busan Asiad Stadium, etc. There will be performances from Girl’s Generation, Apink, CNBlue and many many more. This event is seriously jam packed with musical talent. The festival will kick off with a huge opening showcase at the Busan Asiad Stadium on October the 1st. Then you have fan meetings with the stars, a 3 day continuous flow of K-pop concerts and The Collaboration Music Show to try and fit in to an already packed itinerary.
Then if you ever get hungry at the start of festival related activities you can always stop by “Taste Busan”, which is an exhibition of popular Korean foods and various menu items that will be served at the fusion restaurants at BEXCO from September 30th to October 3rd. Then if you love your make up items and like to know what the K-pops stars are using to keep looking beautiful then you need to hit “Korean Wave Star & Beauty Collection”. It will be held in co-operation with leading entertainment agencies. The aim of this program is to introduce major Hallyu stars, K-beauty and more. Expect about 100 companies with over 200 booths for visitors to browse. You can experience the latest make up products and purchase them if you enjoy them.
Programs (Performance):
– One Asia Festival Opening Performance
– One Asia Dream Concert
– K-POP Concert
– The Collaboration Music Show
– One Asia Hallyu Star fan meeting
– One Asia Classic Banquet
– One Asia Invited Chinese Artist Performance
– One Asia Non-verbal Performance
– One Asia Made in Busan
Exhibition:
– Taste Busan
– Hallyu Star & Beauty Collection
No event is free as far as I know. And prices are likely to vary from each event. The duration of the performance will also vary. And you are more than welcome to bring kids if you have some or grandparents if they happen to reside in Korea. Everything will be very much PG-13. There is also additional events to check out if they attract you. You have One Asia platform, Running Man experience, One Asia music platform, One Asia music market and One Asia culture conference. Check out here: http://bof.or.kr for more info.
Busan Jagalchi Festival:
Since Jagalchi Market is the largest seafood market in all of South Korea. And is a very well-known tourist attraction. This festival takes place every year, every Autumn. The sheer size and bustling nature of Jagalchi Market will take you by surprise at first if it is your first time to Korea or Busan. There will be older Korean men and women at their stalls with fresh fish from the morning hall, screaming out their price, trying to do one over their competitor. Small stalls serve fresh hagfish grilled on briquette fires along with the various other weird sea creatures you may have only ever seen on TV. There is also delicious sashimi-sliced fish at cheap market prices too. This event starts from the 29th of September and finishes up on the 3rd of October. And for obvious reasons the festival will be held at Jagalchi Market.
Programs:
– Street parade, fireworks
– Raw fish dish contest, catching fish with bare-hand, etc.
Transportation by Subway:
Jagalchi Station (Busan Subway Line 1), Exit 10.
– Turn right onto Jagalchi-ro 37beon-gil Road.
Go 120m, turn left, and walk 3min to arrive at Jagalchi Market.
This annual events encompass the long weekend and is a vehicle for promoting the local fresh seafood sector. After the opening ceremony, you can enjoy programs like mentioned above and also workers dressed up as fish and other sea creature. Visitors can also enjoy the boat launch ceremony, fish dance exhibition and fireworks display. There is contests for visitors too like eel relay race, foreigners’ cooking contest and the Jagalchi Ajumma (married older woman) pageant. Don’t forget to enjoy your fresh seafood with a jan (glass) of soju to take in all these cool experiences. Check out www.jagalchi.kr for more info.
If you have enough time to attend both festivals over the first weekend of October, you might actually have a weekend you can never truly forget. All these new experiences will make you feel alive and the thrill of a new experiences will make your trip to Busan all that more worthy of a story to tell your peers and friends. I wish I had the time over the long weekend to get down there for all those fesitvals that will happen over October, So if anyone who reads this attends these festivals please post up some pictures and share it with the rest of us.
