The very first Korea Festival at Federation Square
COMING to Melbourne on May 17 is the inaugural Korea Festival, a free all-day event celebrating the richness of Korean culture. Sol Ahn has the details on what to expect at the festival.
Korea Festival Photo: Supplied
As Korean culture continues to soar in popularity, the city of Melbourne has welcomed many Korean cultural events for its residents to take part in. Some of these have included last year’s very successful KWave Festival and the popular Korean Film Festival in Australia (KOFFIA).
The next of these is the appropriately titled, Korea Festival, which will be bringing the sights, sounds and taste of Korea right into the heart of Melbourne at Federation Square.
Those who’ve yet to experience Korean culture will no doubt find this event to be a fufilling opportunity to get a taste of Korean spirit without having to visit the country.
The all-day event, starting from 11.00am and finishing at 10.00pm will showcase the many iconic features of traditional and contemporary Korean culture including performances from the Busan Metropolitan Traditional Music Orchestra, a Hanbok Fashion Show, K-Pop Contest, Taekwondo and Hapkido demonstrations, a Korean Cooking Show, and much more.
The most exciting news is all of these incredible shows are free to the public!
Busan Metropolitan Traditional Music Orchestra
Image via Korea Festival website
The Busan Metropolitan Traditional Music Orchestra will be at the festival to perform a combination of traditional Korean music and contemporary work composed by some of the country’s leading composers.
It includes many different Korean traditional performances such as the Haegeum Sanjo and Samulnori.
Hanbok Fashion Show
Image: Republic of Korea via Flickr
The main characteristics of Hanbok are its vibrant colours and simple lines. Traditionally Hanbok has been worn during traditional festivals and celebrations as formal and semi-formal clothes.
Hapkido Demonstrations
Image: lord_yomismo via Flickr
Hapkido is a Korean martial art mainly practiced as a form of self-defence. Unlike Taekwondo, Hapkido allows practitioners to train with regular weapons as well as traditional Korean weapons including knives, swords, ropes, jool bong (nunchakus), dan bong (short stick) and joong bong (middle-length stick).
More information on Melbourne’s upcoming Korea Festival at Federation Square can be found at the event’s official website.