Korea Week 2023 | K-Fest | June 10th

*NOTE: I am in the process of making a compilation video to commemorate K-Fest during Korea Week, but video editing is always harder than I think, so I apologize for the delay on that coming to fruition. I know this blog is quite late, but life has a way of piling up, and I beg your forgiveness.*

Korea Week 2023 was a whirlwind of activities and events both in-person and online, but none more exciting than Saturday June 10th – the main festival day! And what a day it was.

Listen, this is my fourth year as an Honorary Reporter for the Korean Cultural Centre and the Embassy of the Republic of Korea, so I’ve been to a lot of amazing events they hosted over the last few years. I have never seen anything quite like what I saw on the first Saturday of Korea Week (the whole weekend was titled K-Fest, but I’ll speak more on the other two days later). I almost couldn’t believe my eyes!

Hosted at Lansdowne Park in the heart of Ottawa, a beautiful sprawling festival was set up, including food trucks, booths with traditional clothing and historical relics, a huge screen set up on a massive stage, and plentiful portable bathrooms (I know it seems silly to mention, but this is almost always a problem at big events, so kudos to the organizers!). With almost no clouds and a bright yellow sun beating down on the attendees, it was as if the sky itself knew June 10th was going to be a great day.

I have to say I got a little bit emotional and misty-eyed when I first stepped foot onto the festival grounds, because there were just so many people. A culture I’ve come to respect and honor and love to my core was being celebrated and supported by the residents of my home city on a huge scale.

In fact, the lines for the food trucks and bubble tea booths were so long I never ended up getting anything because every queue was at least fifty people deep and I’m too impatient!

Since I was obsessively following all the information about Korea Week posted on the KCC’s Facebook page, I knew ahead of time that there would be a tent where attendees could try on hanbok. Several years ago I made my own hanbok, so for a modern twist (and to accommodate for the heat of that beating sun), I wore a knee-length party dress with my hanbok jacket on top. This did get me a few compliments, which were nice, but really I just wanted to dress in the spirit of the event. Plus I’ll take any excuse to wear my hanbok (except I forgot to snap a selfie!).

There was an enormous booth from Sarah & Tom Kpop World with more Kpop group albums than I’ve ever physically seen in one place! In fact they spilled out of the booth onto extra tables and the ground (don’t worry, they were all shrink-wrapped). Way better than any chain store I’ve been to, the merchandise was from a wide variety of artists, and that booth was PACKED the whole day.

As the sun began to make its descent in the west, the fancy main-event stage lit up and the introductions began! We got to hear from the kind, funny, and of course honorable Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Canada (who I’ve been fortunate to meet on several occasions through the Honorary Reporter program) and the Mayor of the city, who officially declared Korea Week in Ottawa! I caught this heart-warming moment on video, and yes, it will be part of the compilation I’m putting together.

After the introductions we were treated to dance and acrobatics performances, breathtaking taekwondo demonstrations, and of course the main event and the thing I look forward to all year long and never miss: the Kpop Cover Dance Festival.

I was captivated and mostly taking bits of video, so sadly I have no still photos from this part of the festival. But don’t worry! I will put the YouTube link here when I’m done editing.

This was certainly an experience I will never forget, and I’m so grateful to the Korean Cultural Centre, the Embassy of the Republic of Korea, and the Republic of Korea itself for allowing us to experience and participate in some of the wonderful parts of their culture. It’s still my dream to one day visit Korea, but until then, stuff like this is the next best thing. You can check out better, professional photos of this event on the KCC Facebook page.