October 5th 2008 - Music festival
October 5th 2008
Ulsan World Music Festival
At the beginning of this week Paula's friend from her schooldays, Litzi, was visiting us. You can read more about that visit here.
Wednesday, after taking Litzi to the airport, we dropped by the bicycle shop to pick up Paula's new bike. She had ordered a bright green bike - her favorite color. Friday I first went on a longish mountain bike ride and when I got home Paula and I went for a ride around our area. I think she was a bit surprised by the hilly terrain !! This is not Malmö or Copenhagen and it looks a lot more managable from the inside of a car !! But we had a nice ride around the harbour area, going to see what all the fishermen had caught and what the fishing boats were bringing in.
How is it again ... ?
... maybe this way around ...
There she is !!
Big catch today ! By the way - hunting whales is illegal in Korea !
Was this really a by-catch .. ??
There are plenty of whale restaurants around, and I don't think they catch so many whales by mistake, but who knows ..?
Saturday started with yoga and then continued with more relaxation ! I was very tired from all the cycling from the day before, so we didn't get away from the house until 4pm, where we went in to the town centre for the annual Ulsan World Music Festival. We had gone last year and were very impressed with the quality of the music then. So it would be interesting to see if this year could live up to the big expectations. I guess we should have gone on the Friday as well, as they had some interesting bands on stage that day also. But no use to cry over spilled milk - the first performance we saw more than lived up to what we had hoped for. I am not a huge fan of gypsy music and I don't care much for hip-hop, but a mix of the two is surprisingly good ! Gipsy Cz. (from Chech Republich) were voted "Best Performance" by last years audience and they very quickly got this audience out of their seats! It helps when you have a lead singer on duracell batteries. Below is a promotional video from Gipsy Cz.
Gipsy Cz. rocked the party !
More gipsy hiphop.
After a bite of greek and vietnamese food we continued with electro-tango in the shape of Bajofondo - an Argentinian/Uruguayan band. We were all wondering what electronic tango might sound like ... it's not really something you hear every day. But once again we were very positively surprised. Imagine Rammstein meets Portishead meets Tango !!! That pretty much doesn't leave anything out - I know ... but I can't really find a better way of describing it. The audience all loved it. Here are a few teasers:
Bajofondo started with a sit-down concert.
... but ended quite different !
The security tape was breached and the stage flooded in seconds ..
Bajofondo ready for autographs.
Anyway - music always sounds better live and we had a good time. Paula even bought a few of Bajofondo's CD's, so she must have been pleased ! Didn't get an autograph though ...
There were also a few tents with local folk craft at the festival
Printing ...
We met with Stephanie and Jerome there and watched the parade together.
The parade.
Next years world championship in archery will be held in Ulsan.
More parade.
Today I went out for a volley ball game and have been sitting with my wrist on ice ever since !! It's that age-thing popping up it ugly face again ! haha .. But at least I keep challenging it ... Can't let it win too easily ! Paula out cold on the couch and me on ice ! Some Sunday ! At least the weather hasn't been good for much either.