3rd Busan Firework Festival 20 Oct 2007

Hoho, this post is going to be a long post, because I am going to put a lot of firework photos and talk about fireworks in Gwangan Bridge. Hiak!!Firstly, the "3rd Busan Fireworks Festival", the world's top high-tech multimedia fireworks festival, will be held for two days from October 19 to 20 against the backdrop of Gwangalli Beach and Gwangan Bridge.

That day was just too cold!!!

While Busan may be Korea's second city, there's a feeling that it's got some way to go as far as the development of cultural events are concerned, as the Fireworks Festval seems to be one of the relatively few events of note in the annual city calendar. This of course meant that the desire of local people to attend was particularly high, making the two subway trains we took more like cattle trucks. Clearly the subway authorities had become concerned enough by the number of people to annouce that changing train in Seomyeon,petaling street in Korea (most happening area) would not be possible.




The initial impression of chaos was not to last though. A huge number of police at Gwangalli Beach ensured good crowded control and everyone who arrived early enough was able to take a seat on the beach with relative ease - though we had to wait two hours for the firework to begin. The fireworks started from 8pm to 8.45pm.



Gwangan Bridge - which arcs across the bay in an improbably fashion to apparently link points A and B on the mainland in the longest way possible (It's currently Korea's longest bridge) - was lit up spectacularly, although most of the fireworks were launched from the shore rather than the bridge itself. We'd been promised a multi-media fireworks display, though predictably this translated into meaning fireworks accompanied by loud music. It sort of worked though. If we are going next year, I think we'll take cushions for the beach though; 2 hours sat on sand and pebbles with nothing more than a thin ground-mat for protection is not to be recommended. (There were a lot of hawker selling plastic made cushions cost around 3-4 USD).

Counting Down show

Despite the heavy police numbers the post-festival experience was worrying. We were staying with friends at a Gwangalli Beach but when we left Gwangalli Beach to walk towards to Suyeong, we found ourselves pushing against a flood of humanity surging in the opposite direction. The small group of us intent on going to other way eventually succeeded.


I read that 600,000 people watched the festival last year, and the city authorities expected over one million this year, but our Korean companions told us that this year actually seemed quieter, in which case I can only imagine the horrors of the previous event. it certainly felt like we fought our way through tens of thousands of people walking towards Gwanglli Beach, and the crowded did not really tail off until we were almost at our destination - approximately 45 mins walk.