Dance baby: Music Festivals in Korea

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Anyone who lives in Korea can tell you that the local music scene kinda sucks as they find themselves humming along to local Kpop songs that are blasting from the sidewalk and remind me of the mid 90s boy/girl band movement. Although there are some great Korean indie bands such as the KOXX, there are two great festivals any music lover marks on their calender - Jisan Rock Festival (August) and Global Gathering (September).

The Jisan Rock Festival is a 3 day festival not unlike Glastonbury in the UK if only for the reason that it rains most of the time. In 2011 international bands such as Jimmy Eat World, the Arctic Monkeys, the Music, the Chemical Brothers and Incubus came. There were a variety of stages and a couple of camping areas in this area that is used as a ski resort in winter. The highlight of Friday was definitely the Chemical Brothers. The whole crowd was amped and throwing themselves around in the heat and throwing off clothes. Koreans are sometimes subdued in their appreciation of music but the Chemical Bros set lifted them right out of that! After that people headed to the pool to cool off and jive to UV's Itaewan Freedom

Another great set were the Arctic Monkeys from the UK, Feeder and the Music were expectantly amazing but Incubus let the show down a bit as most Koreans had no idea who they were and they played their mellower songs. All in all it was my most intense, amazing festival yet due to the great friends, meeting new people, getting bruised, battered, sleeping in a giant puddle due to my tent not being waterproof...I walked out of there like a war victim but happy to see civilisation again.

Global Gathering was a 1 day electronica/dance music fest held in Seoul. The weather was perfect - warm but not stifling hot and I went with a bunch of friends in the perfect costume - animal onesies. As the bear, dragon and Tiger (me) walked and danced together we were treated like celebrities and in photos with everyone. I love it when other Koreans dress up too - such as the group of Umpa Lumpas! Digitalism played a fantastic set and I cannot reccomend them enough. Here's an example of their song Blitz:

Groove Amarda was the other international band, from whom I can't remember a hit since "superstyler". I downloaded the latest album though and quite like the single "paper romance" but in vivo they did not impress me much and I remember talking with friends during the set. The DJ from MSTRKRFT also played a set and the KOXX were excellent I heard. All in all a fantastic day and worth the 77,000 won early bird ticket price!

There are also other festivals such as the World DJ Festival to look out for and a surprising amount of music acts come to Korea - from Westlife?! to DJ Boys Noize from Germany.

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