Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Triban]

1.) Seoul Fireworks Festival

2.) JinJu Festival

3.) Andong Mask Festival

4.)The Suwon International Choral Competition & Festival

5.) Oman Muscat Festival

6.)2009 Korean Drama Festival will be postponed until late November or early December

7.) Gwangju Kimchi Festival

8.) http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com/search/label/Swine%20flu%20in%20Korea

This blog does all I wanted to do and adds a slight humor to the whole debacle.

If you know of any others that have/will be ridiculously canceled/postponed due to this normal, yet faster spreading flu, please post so it can be added to the list.

p.s. I thought kimchi cured flu?

[I'm no Picasso]

I'm honestly upset about this fireworks cancellation thing.

[Carla]

[seoulsucker]

The FW Festival got cancelled?? That BLOWS.

It might have to do with the fact that despite there being 100 different vantage points along the river from which to view the fireworks, 99.9% of the people in this city would have crowded through the same subway station/exit/park to watch.

[Pwillig]

The Baudeogi Festival in my city, Anseong got cancelled. Oh well, they can't make us stay sober!

[Smee]

I've been keeping track of them here:
http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com/search/label/Swine%20flu%20in%20Korea

The Kimchi one is back on, as is the Gwangju CHungjangno Festival.

Other cancellations of upcoming festivals:

* Masan Chrysanthemum Festival
* Jindo Arirang Festival
* Suncheon Bay Reeds Festival
* Gwangyang Meat Festival

Looks like some school/college festivals are being closed as well.

I see that a lot of festivals (smaller ones mostly) that were initially cancelled have been put back on as originally scheduled. It's best to double- and triple-check. Not the English papers, but the Korean ones, and the official Korean sites. They have been absolutely horrible about getting the word out in English.

[Aelric]

Well, on the plus side, I hear that the Busan firework festival is still on, as is the Busan Film Festival. Come south in October, folks.

[Changwon Charlie]

Just a note on this story.

My wife works for the government and is involved in organizing and promoting festivals and culture in Korea and the reason why all these festivals have been cancelled is the federal government has put out a memo STRONGLY recommeding any gathering that will have more than 1000 people together should be cancelled.

It is up to the various regions to make the decision but the government has said if they hold a festival and there is a swine flu outbreak then they will withhold some funding for the next year (or something to that effect).

I have no proof of this, just first hand from my wife.

[lsrupert]

Does anyone know if the drum festival is canceled? I went to it's website, and since my Korean is not that advanced I had to copy and paste the most recent notice, then use a translating website to try to figure out what they were saying. (I know that the translation websites are not that great..)
Even after THREE different translations, I still can't figure out what they are saying!! lol Can someone with a better handle on the Korean language give it a go?
Thanks.

Here's the website: http://drumfestival.org/website_2009/

[coralreefer_1]

[lsrupert]

thanks!! will do. Had a big group that was going to attend the fireworks festival. We're bummed that it's canceled! The drum festival has been awesome in the past, and I hope that it's as good this year, as well.

[Carla]

[steveinincheon]

If any gathering of more than 1000 people should be canceled, shouldn't the Seoul subway be cancelled, along with all the traditional markets, along with going outside in Myeong-Dong and Gangnam, along with shopping at E-mart or Homeplus on Sunday?

[redaxe]

[Xuanzang]

"Does the government even know what they want??" That thread title is very applicable here.