신촌 한마음의 밤 (Shinchon Spirit Night)

I think this was part of the Korean Chinese festival I went to on Saturday, but yesterday it had a different name, and (at least in the 2 hours I saw) no Chinese stuff. In addition to seeing some traditional musical performances, I sat next to district bosses and heads of companies last night at this event and talked to them about Chinatown. Turns out I live in Chinatown...which doesn't seem right, since there are no guys on the street selling sketchy Rolexs or pirated DVDs in my neighborhood. Anyhow here are the photos.


Samulnori Team 1


Samulnori Team 2


This guy is either the manager of the Hyundai department store in Shinchon or the boss of Seodaemun-gu...I don't remember which he was.


This guy was so random. He sang a couple songs. First he was totally rockin' out 80's metal style (White Snake or Poison...not Metallica), and then he sang a trot song. Trot is like old man and old lady music here in Korea, so it was pretty strange.


Same guy as above, only now he is in "Rock Mode."


Drunken yangban dance.


Go Yangban! Go Yangban!


Dancing kisaeng. Ok how can I explain kisaeng for a western audience. Kisaeng are kind of like geisha...no wait, most westerners think geisha are prostitutes. Long ago in Korea, kisaeng were female entertainers for the elite. They were skilled singers, dancers, musicians, poets, ect, They would perform for the elite and at the time were the only females allowed to travel.


Samulnori Team 1 (again). Anyhow they were announced as teams which is the only reason I use that term. If memory serves me correctly, this team hails from Myeong-ji University. They were really getting into their performance. The one guy was headbanging the whole time...like he was Dave Mustaine or something. And the guy with the small cymbal was rocking so hard he broke his mallet.

The event hosts were more strict this time than the day before. Where on Saturday when I was taking pictures from further back, security told me I could stand on the side of the stage and take pictures from there, this time around I had to stay behind a certain line (not that it really mattered, since some of my pictures turned out alright). The other thing that was weird, was the population of the park this time around. On Saturday it was mostly some families, old ladies, drunk guys, and college students who wandered in, on Sunday it was mostly loud dykey looking high school girls who had been there the whole day (I'd walked by earlier in the day on my way to buy some weights). Anyhow this girls were straight out of a women's prison movie. They were loud, scary, smoking, cursing, and all over each other (more so than normal). Here's a photo of such madness:


There are no men or boys in that picture.