Hi Seoul ‘Festival’

Today marks the start of the Hi Seoul Festival, and the few of us (Chin Keat, Yong Hui, Valerie and I) went over to Cheongyecheon (the most famous river in Seoul) to watch the mass parade. However, the moment we came out of the subway station, we saw hundreds of police in shields, head gear and bulletproof vests standing guard. I didn’t think too much, cause there are always policemen near Seoul Financial Centre.

We only started to suspect something was wrong when we saw policemen dragging struggling people away from the streets, with reporters at the same time taking videos and snapping pictures. Later we found out that there were around 4 to 5 protests taking place here all at the same time. We were also told that the festival might be cancelled because of the protests.

Nonetheless, we still decided to try our luck at the starting place of the parade. When we were there, the performers were already starting to play music and dance, and the mood was really high! What we didn’t expect was that the protesters had already mixed themselves into the performers. When the parade was going on, the protesters were creating havoc, chanting loud cheers and sabotaging the props.

At one point, there was a whole fleet of cars forming a contingent along the street, with special festival ambassadors walking beside the cars. The protestors actually started to cut the floating balloons off the car, and the event organiser was so worried he used the PA system to instruct all the ambassadors to get into the cars, so as to protect their safety.

We kept ourselves safe by walking in front of the parade, where there were no protesters around. At the end of the parade street, there was a giant outdoor concert stage. We were lucky enough to squeeze to almost the front of the stage, as we were told there was going to be multiple celebrities performing in half an hour. We saw so many fans holding 2PM balloons, and Valerie was so excited, as she loved that group. 

Unfortunately the protesters made it to the concert plaza too, and started to merge into the crowd. Many of them held placards and flags, and were shouting really loudly (not too sure what they were protesting about, but I heard it was the 1 year anniversary of the agreement of the importing of US beef into South Korea; the citizens were worried about contracting Mad Cow Disease. Also, apparently the South Koreans seem very unhappy with the present government) around us. We felt trapped in between the protesters.

The MC also seemed to be freaking out, and told the PA system to keep looping the songs so as to drown the chants of the protesters. This got the mob so angry that they started to throw stuff onto the stage, even hitting the host as a result. In the end, the mob managed to storm onto the stage and shut down the whole system.

At that point in time, we tourists were still really puzzled on what was happening, until the PA system started announcing that the concert would be cancelled and urged us to leave this place immediately. Volunteers were shouting frantically at us to leave, when the police started to put on their anti-riot gear and circled the entire plaza. It was then we started getting worried that we would not be able to leave the plaza, especially when the police were starting to walk inwards, making the circle smaller. Around us, we could hear loud screams and high shrills, as the protesters resisted arrest. Luckily we caught sight of an exit and made our way out to the subway station, where it was safe.

Anyway, please don’t worry about us in Korea, because all the protests here are non-violent, and protests happen rather frequently too. In fact, one of the flags we saw belonged to Korea University. The protesters ranged from students to elderly people, and besides the rowdy noise (and a handful of more violent people), it was pretty safe. In fact, we were more afraid of the fully-equipped policemen more than anything, cause they looked really menacing in their huge numbers. And besides, I am safely blogging about the event now, aren’t I? Heh :)