2014 Seoul International Fireworks Festival

On October 4, 2014 The Seoul International Fireworks Festival was held in Hangang Park right outside Yeouinaru Station. The fireworks were put on by professional teams from United Kingdom, Italy, China, and Korea. There were events during the day, but I only went for the fireworks. The fireworks lasted from 7:30 to 9pm.
_________________________
Another adventure! I am very adventurous!

The event was crazy! I should have left my house earlier. I left my subway station at 5:35 and I was suppose to have about a 35 minute journey. I thought I'd be fine to get there at 6pm. (I was wrong!) The fireworks didn't start till 7:30 and I didn't want to sit around with nothing to do. The battery drains too fast on my phone using wifi/4g and I have to save the ipad power to make videos. I need spare batteries and extra devices to keep myself occupied!

My transfer station, Gongdeok, was packed! I had never seen a subway station that packed before! There were tons of people waiting to get on the subway. Every train that came by was packed full. I finally got on after the 3rd train that came by.

When I got to Yeounariu station there were a lot of people going to the park so I just followed the crowd. Along the way there were tons of food vendors, but I didn't want to stop to get anything. Once you got into the park you were basically being pushed along by the crowd! There was no where to sit. People had already claimed almost every piece of available grass (this was about an hour before the fireworks started). It was complete craziness! At first I was standing behind where people were sitting. Then they told us we couldn't stand there so I moved to another spot where some people were standing behind those who were sitting.

When the fireworks started there was someone yelling for everyone to sit down (in Korean, but I understood). We stood up for a while and then all of a sudden everyone started sitting and we were pushed down. I didn't have room to move so I was sitting on my knees. It was so painful. I couldn't watch the show for a little while because my legs were hurting so bad. I couldn't sit down with my legs crossed because I had nowhere to move. Finally after a while some people started getting up and people starting moving around and I had enough room to sit and stretch my legs a little. My legs were numb and it took a while for them to return to normal. Then i sat with my legs crossed and after a while my leg was numb again. I just don't know how people can sit on the floor with their legs crossed for a long time.

I got some good footage once i was able to sit down. I was able to narrow my video down to under 13 minutes. In the video its neat to hear the crowd's reaction to the fireworks.

After the fireworks were over it was complete chaos again. So many people moving at the same time. I walked up to the street level and just stood there for a little while. I probably watched the crowd walking by for 20 minutes or more. The crowd just kept on coming the whole time I was watching. I finally left my spot and walked to the subway station so I'd have time to make it home. There was more chaos in the subway. It was packed again. After I went down it didn't take me long to get on the train.

I had quite an adventure. I had never been to a festival that large in Seoul. This was my first and only chance to see the festival.

My advice for future attendees-get there early to get a good spot to sit. The best viewing area is in front of the 63 building. I was a good distance away, but I still had a good view.

If you like to have personal space then this is definitely not the festival for you! It will be packed everywhere!