Mic check 1, 2. Hello?
Ah, hi :)
As usual, we'll skip past the excuses and get right into it.
On the last weekend of July, I attended the annual Jisan Valley Rock Festival which is held in Icheon (north east-ish of South Korea). This year's headlining band was Radiohead. Oh, goodness, Radiohead. Let me start by acknowledging the fact that I was never a die hard fan of Radiohead. In fact, I only opened up to a world where they existed late in 2009. Horror, I know, but with music, I love that it's never too late to discover great talent.
Day 1 was a Friday, which meant I'd have to leave school early to make it on the earlier bus to Incheon (about a 4/5 hour bus ride from Daegu). We had summer camp, thankfully and I got to leave at 12:30 to make the 14:00 bus. The bus was filled with full time fun lovers who teach in between the good times. I was afraid for the ride there, but it was more peaceful than I had anticipated. I sat next to Chitsi, who was the only person I really knew on the bus.
Fast forward to our arrival, passing long-queue time by singing Bohemian Rhapsody, hearing Korean Indie band, Black Keys on stage who I really wanted to see, just as we drove into the area, getting tags and running to get stuff set up, here we were. Somewhere on the top of a hill, ready to take on the weekend.
yep, we did that!
Where normal people slept- not on a hill which to a hike and a half to get to.
We didn't waste any time getting ready. Just put on some mosquito repellent and out dancing shoes, and off to the madness we went. A quick sprint to the food area, and straight to the Big Top stage which would host Radiohead as Friday's last act.
Grace Jones came as Chitsi and all she needed was a quick bite before Radiohead.
At this point, it would've been okay to just head home to Daegu, and I'd have felt like it was well worth it, but just around the corner, the Super Mix Lounge was prepping to culture shock me some more.
We walk into this dance area, and there are DJs playing the type of music that wanted to teleport my eldest sister from South Africa to the dance floor. It was all the good ol' house tunes that reminded me of her, and of a young me. I was just so excited that after 17 months of living in Korea, there was a sign of DJs who play music that isn't just doofdoofdoof tswikitswikiwtswiiiiiiiiiiiii all day long. Something familiar. I was somewhere between bliss and 'I miss home'.
With comfortable shoes on, I was able to out-dance myself and my bed time. Til the good DJs stopped playing, of course. Then my feet went into no-thanks mode.
The Super Mix Lounge
Grace Chits Jones and Aaron
House DJs
and more funky house
take a picture!- stranger
a performance of Moloko's Sing it Back
sweaty, out-of-focus pic with Katja and Megan
Saturday. Day 2. Get woken up by the mean heat after only about 5 hours of sleep (a lot for a festival weekend). Take it pretty easy and get a nice tan while waiting in the queue for ice cold showers.
And only in Korea can you have rice and beef from a real kitchen during a festival. The location is a skii resort in winter, so these facilities came in handy for all the hungry lions.
The rest of the day I spent walking around, taking random pics of what I could see and just enjoying the 1 man-ness.
The Max Beer tent became the hot spot since it was the only place that had aircon. Not big enough to host the thousands of people that were there, but the Daegu troop was good at finding the treasure early. Also, free massages?! Winning formula.
Roaming around also includes relaxing in the 'backyard; of the festival. The best cool off spot of the valley for sure!
It looked like these ones were discussing who is gonna be the one to carry the box of instant noodles across the stream. Never.Leave.The.Noodles!
Chitsi happy to have all her fave Daegu peeps in one picture. Fee, Matthew, Me, and Bea.
The rest of the day was literally spent in the cool of the shade and the sounds of the stream. When the sun decided to calm down, I had to decide if I was gonna watch Owl City and risk being at the back for James Blake when I decided I'd rather hang around at the main stage and find a good spot for little James.
At this stage, I had given myself a break from playing photographer, and also giving my battery a chance to relax. James Blake was really good. I like his stuff (Chits introduced his music to me a few months ago in fact), but I really felt like his sound wasn't the type that should've been the closing act for the night. I'm sure the crowd agreed. Check a vid of of one of the songs here. I was definitely one of the mad screaming people :( Embarrassing.
Like a happy customer, I made my way back to the Super Mix Lounge in hopes of some great nostalgia-causing tunes. Success. Here's a shot taken by the guy from Moskito Photography.
At this stage, I didn't mind being left alone to enjoy dancing with random new friends. Look at that smile! teehee
Sunday. Day 3. A pretty long day where I was looking forward to seeing my fave Korean band, Busker Busker and also Los Lonely Boys. The Stone Roses headlined and I know many people came just for them, but it isn't a band I grew up on so I just went, so I can say I've seen em.
The Busker Busker crowd. Insane
about 2 hours later, I am (no jokes) sitting on my own, in the shade, wondering why I like being such a loser, when I look up and a few metres away from me, are the Buskers, doing a surprise interview. Jump up. Grab camera. Leave shoes.
Beom Jun (lead singer. mic in hand): Hello (kindly trying to make the only non-Korean feel welcome.
Me: *legs doing a strange fidgety,excited fan dance* HI BEOM JUN!!!! (like we're old friends. What was I thinking?!)
Beom Jun: *Eyes wide open* Oh, wow! (very taken aback by this little black girl knowing his name)
Interview continues (all sounds like a buzz to me since I don't understand enough Korean to know what going on). Before you know it, people are trying to get picked for something, jumping up and down, when Beom Jun points at me and one of the crew comes to let me through the barricade.
What?! No big deal, you know. Just me and my favourite Korean band, saying hi and taking pictures together. And no one who knows how much I love them was around to freak out with me. So funny. It was like a quick daydream, but live. You know? See my few seconds of fame here. I had no idea what was going on.
Then later in the Max Tent...
and en route Los Lonely Boys with Katja and Sera
Good music= Happy Keke.
Thanks, Jisan!
