Mask Festival

Last weekend I went to a mask festival with my friends Becky and Lauren.  Turns out, the term "festival" was used loosely.  I posted some pics on facebook, but for my non-facebook readers, I thought I'd post a little about it here too.

We pretty much expected to go to a street festival, with music and street vendors and festivities (get it?  cause it's a festival?  I like puns) and the normal festival things, but what we got instead was a large room with a few tables and a lot of chairs facing a stage.  No street food.  I was looking forward to some street food, so that was a bummer.  It was actually a charity function for a group called Mannam, which does volunteer work around South Korea. 

As you can see, we made masks!  They're quite lovely, don't you think?  That was the major highlight of the event.  The glitter paint wasn't dry when we were wearing them, so my bangs ended up with glitter all up in them!  Mine's currently hanging on a window lock in my apartment, giving some pizzazz to the window. 

The rest of the time was spent watching various performances by volunteers.  Superb. 

This was a dramatic interpretation of Beyonce's "Halo," with masks, of course.  I absolutely looove that song, especially after this dance from SYTYCD, so I was jamming out in my seat, singing along ;)

These three little girls "sang" something or other, but they were a little scared of the audience so only one sorta kinda mouthed the words into the mic, while the other two stood there looking adorable.

The next performance had to be videoed to be truly appreciated.  These two expats wrote a couple songs about life in Korea and they're up on youtube, but here's a sample: 

We also got to listen to some Korean folk music.  Right after I stopped recording, the lady with the mic approached Becky (who's tall and blonde and would be easy to pick out of a Korean crowd even if she weren't sitting on an aisle) to sing along into the mic.  Ack!  Audience participation!  Don't make eye contact! 

After the Korean folk music, we handed out some gifts to the kids, cause they asked us to since we're foreign (oh Korea), and then left (escaped?) to meet Marisa for some galbi. 

Lesson learned?  If you're invited to a festival, find out if it's a real festival or one of these.  At least I got to make a mask!