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Songdo World Cultural/Beer Festival - Pathetic
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FDNY



Joined: 27 Sep 2010

PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2011 12:17 am    Post subject: Songdo World Cultural/Beer Festival - Pathetic Reply with quote

New Songdo is touting that it has spent US$35billion on the New Songdo City. This is supposed to be a place where foreigners will want to live, where businesses will want to locate to. So, I thought if they dropped thirty five big ones on the thing, then one of their first festivals should be pretty good.

The webpage wasn't bad: http://www.ilovebeer.kr/

Unfortunately the webpage is FALSE advertising, if not an outright lie.

There were about a hundred booths there. One booth had a few warm bottles of overpriced craft brew. Bottles were 10,000 and 20,000 won each and, like I said, warm. Another booth had bottles of equally warm Tsingtao, Bud and some Turkish beer. There was NO draft beer except for OB. I couldn't believe it. There was also NO foreign food whatsoever. I felt offended that I had actually expended energy to come to this place for such an amateurish, badly organized event. Moving on there was no foreign entertainment or music whatsoever. Lastly, all signs were in English only. (World Cultural festival???)

So, after 30 minutes of this garbage we crossed the street to the 7/11 where they hade about fifteen different beers and it was cold. You're average E-Mart would be a better World Beer Festival than that dump.

Korea still has a LONG way to go. $35billion wasted. I certainly wouldn't want to live there.
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northway



Joined: 05 Jul 2010

PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2011 1:15 am    Post subject: Re: Songdo World Cultural/Beer Festival - Pathetic Reply with quote

FDNY wrote:
$35billion wasted. I certainly wouldn't want to live there.


I'm pretty sure they didn't build it for the beer festival.
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FloridaGator314



Joined: 04 Apr 2011

PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2011 1:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

As a resident of Yeonsu-gu, I had no idea that New Songdo City was there in order to bring more brands of beer to Korea. Might be a little over, but it's still cool.
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isisaredead



Joined: 18 May 2010

PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2011 2:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

i think FDNY was arguing that this world beer festival was supposed to be something of an advertisement for the potential of new songdo. that the event was a flop could be seen as proof that new songdo, too, will fail to meet even the most basic of expectations, considering the amount of money that's been pumped into it.

or i could be way off.
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FDNY



Joined: 27 Sep 2010

PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2011 2:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

isisaredead wrote:
i think FDNY was arguing that this world beer festival was supposed to be something of an advertisement for the potential of new songdo. that the event was a flop could be seen as proof that new songdo, too, will fail to meet even the most basic of expectations, considering the amount of money that's been pumped into it.

or i could be way off.


Precisely what I was talking about. They could have attempted something world-class to launch this huge investment in an auspicious manner. But they chose to order 500 cases of Tsingtao, get some OB draft and call it a world beer festival. It is pathetic and refects badly on New Songdo and, more importantly, demonstrates to any foreigner that Korea is still a 2nd rate backwater.
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Stan Rogers



Joined: 20 Aug 2010

PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2011 2:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

FDNY at his drunk and surliest.
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NYC_Gal 2.0



Joined: 10 Dec 2010

PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2011 6:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

My Korean boss was disappointed with the festival. She had been looking forward to foreign beer, and told me that she could have gotten the few that they had at E-mart or Homeplus for less, and not have wasted the drive.

My boss is awesome.
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Jake_Kim



Joined: 27 Aug 2005
Location: Seoul

PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2011 6:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just another example of pet projects of the previous administration gone south. I'm talking about Songdo itself, not the self-proclaimed 'festival.'
Korean beer advocates have used harsher expressions regarding the event, BTW.
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sojusucks



Joined: 31 May 2008

PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2011 6:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

You would think Koreans would know how to put on a boozefest since they are such experts at drinking down the firewater.
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Landros



Joined: 19 Oct 2007

PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2011 3:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

have the St. Patrick's day parade there next year and let the Irish show them how's it is done or invite the germans. If they want an international festival they had better invite some international groups to do their thing. amateurs.
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isisaredead



Joined: 18 May 2010

PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2011 3:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Landros wrote:
have the St. Patrick's day parade there next year and let the Irish show them how's it is done or invite the germans. If they want an international festival they had better invite some international groups to do their thing. amateurs.


that's actually not a bad idea.
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nukeday



Joined: 13 May 2010

PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2011 3:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

isisaredead wrote:
Landros wrote:
have the St. Patrick's day parade there next year and let the Irish show them how's it is done or invite the germans. If they want an international festival they had better invite some international groups to do their thing. amateurs.


that's actually not a bad idea.


Did you go to St PAtrick's Day in Insadong this year? It sucked.

No way I'd go all the way to Songdo for that.

Look, they over-hyped a festival meant to promote over-hyped Songdo. It is embarrassing and sometimes I think Koreans need to learn that no hype, or no festival, is better than a poor version.
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FDNY



Joined: 27 Sep 2010

PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2011 9:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

nukeday wrote:
isisaredead wrote:
Landros wrote:
have the St. Patrick's day parade there next year and let the Irish show them how's it is done or invite the germans. If they want an international festival they had better invite some international groups to do their thing. amateurs.


that's actually not a bad idea.


Did you go to St PAtrick's Day in Insadong this year? It sucked.

No way I'd go all the way to Songdo for that.

Look, they over-hyped a festival meant to promote over-hyped Songdo. It is embarrassing and sometimes I think Koreans need to learn that no hype, or no festival, is better than a poor version.



I don't understand why it has to be that way. Can't they hire an event organizer that knows what they are doing? For example, for the beer festival I would have started by contacting ALL the microbreweries in Seoul. Second I would have contacted all the foreign restaurants in Incheon. Third I would have contacted at least fifty or so brewing companies from around the world to see what they could offer and at what cost. Fourth I would have contacted the company that supplies the Seoul pubs with Guinness, Kilkenny, Alley Kat, Hoegarden etc. I'm sure they would have been more than happy to participate.

I can think of two reasons why they didn't.

1/ The organizer of the beer festival was extremely inept.
2/ The organizer thought the average Korean wouldn't appreciate a world class event, so they didn't bother.
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brento1138



Joined: 17 Nov 2004

PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 11:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just go to WA Bar. At least the beer is cold! Laughing
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jvalmer



Joined: 06 Jun 2003

PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 11:24 pm    Post subject: Re: Songdo World Cultural/Beer Festival - Pathetic Reply with quote

FDNY wrote:
Korea still has a LONG way to go. $35billion wasted. I certainly wouldn't want to live there.

I wouldn't call it a failure yet, you'd have to wait some 10-25 years before declaring it a failure. You can't go populating a planned city in a matter of years, it takes decades. Who knows? Maybe NK will collapse and that will bring in a stampede of investment from China and Europe into a stable Korean peninsula...
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