The annual Koreatown Festival combines the best of traditional Korean dance, song and instruments with a modern twist – namely the Gangnam-style dance contest and K-pop – to showcase what this vibrant, lesser-known Asian community is all about.
Only very recently has the Korean community come into its own, with the City of Sydney Council only installing signage last year that identifies the small area of Pitt, Central and Wilmot Streets officially as ‘Korea Town’.
The festival, which was held on Saturday, February 16 from 10am to 8pm, attracted bigger crowds than ever before. It was formerly known as the ‘Chinese Lunar Festival’ but this year things were run differently.
To establish the festival as uniquely Korean, the community organised a special committee to upgrade the event and attract larger and more diverse crowds. The Sydney Korean Community Festival Committee indicated that this year, more than 13,000 Koreans attended or participated in the event.
Photo: Yves Margarita
Stage performances kicked off at 11am with the Korean folk music group, Nanjang and Pan, travelling from Korea exclusively for this event. Traditional instruments like the Daegum (large bamboo flute) and the Sogeum (small bamboo flute) were played with grace and technique, initiating the audience into Korea’s historically rich customs.
The younger visitors looked forward to the Gangnam-style dance contest and enjoyed the comical renditions of the well-known song of Korean pop star, Psy.
K-Pop’s (Korean pop music) popularity was clear among this crowd too; various stage acts by the talented bunch of young people at the K-Pop Academy received much applause.
Photo: Yves Margarita
The cultural feast continued with a wrestling ring set up for traditional Korean wrestling. This activity involved two men using lots of force and strength to push their opponent to the ground. Very entertaining. Then came the drum dance that combined the dynamics of Korean dance with uniform movements used to pound the drums.
Shortly after, young Korean men and women began lining up on stage with elaborate Korean costumes and colourful make-up for the Costume Plays and Hair and Make-Up Show.
The crowd also enjoyed a variety of regional foods from the dozen or so stalls selling everything from kimchi (fermented cabbage) to steaming hot bulgogi (Korean beef and rice).
Koreatown Festival Photo: Yves Margarita
The second half of the 10-hour program included more popular culture; in total there were seven Gangnam-style contests. This was perhaps a strategic move by the committee to attract a multicultural younger crowd, which it did as each contest attracted a full house.
Festival committee president, Luke Song, said in his welcome address that he planned to “create a beautiful and clean Korea Town to attract more tourists to the area”.
The Korean community’s hard work seems to be paying off – after the success of this festival Korea Town may become a household term equal to Chinatown as an indicator of Sydney’s Asian influences.
