By Korea.net Honorary Reporter Marie Boes from Belgium
Photos = Marie Boes

The year 2017 saw Gyeongju’s first official cherry blossom festival, hosted in celebration of the many beautiful cherry blossom trees that are in full bloom. The city was covered with these beautiful pink flowers. It was the perfect atmosphere for a romantic weekend, a family daytrip or for a million excuses to take another selfie.

The festival started on March 31 and finished April 9. There were many activities and events, like an opening ceremony with live concerts and fireworks, a cherry blossom marathon, a beer festival, a skewer or kebab festival, there were stalls along the riverside, traditional performances at Bomun Lake, live concerts next to the Cheomseongdae Observatory and much, much more.

The festival was located at three different locations: the expo site and Bomun Lake, along the Gyeongjugang River and at the Cheomseongdae Observatory. The riverside and the observatory are only a short walk from the express bus terminal. Getting to Bomun Lake or the expo site will take approximately 25 minutes by bus from downtown Gyeongju. You can take bus numbers 10, 11, 100-1, 150, 154 or 600 and get off at the Wolseong-dong Citizen’s Center bus stop.



The opening ceremony started at around 7:30 p.m. at Bomun Lake. We went by car and managed to park at the free parking lot at the teddy bear museum, which was only a seven-minute walk away.

There were multiple bands, but the two acts that stood out for us were Roy Kim and the orchestra performing songs by Abba, the musical "Grease" and other popular hit songs.

Many screaming fans travelled all the way from Busan and Daegu to see Roy Kim. I personally hadn’t heard of him before, but his performance was magical. Together with the fireworks, it was the perfect closure for this wonderful evening.

The entrance price to the skewer and kebab festival was KRW 4,000, but once in, you received a coupon worth KRW 3,000 that you could exchange for snacks. There were many stalls that offered different styles and delicious snacks from all over the world.





The beer festival was free to enter. There were beers from five different breweries from all around Korea. The festival was accompanied with live music.

On Sunday, we visited the festival at the riverside and the live music at the observatory.

A live Peruvian band, which seems to be at every festival in Gyeongju, was again a proud performer at the cherry blossom festival. They sell lovely souvenirs from their home country and play wonderful pan flute music. Other stalls had fried foods, snacks, drinks, toys and many more things that were worth buying. A must-try this season was the strawberry juice.

We would definitely recommend this festival to people of all ages and nationalities. There are many activities for children, like making kites and face painting.

wisdom117@korea.kr

* This article is written by a Korea.net Honorary Reporter. Our group of Honorary Reporters are from all around the world, and they share with Korea.net their love and passion for all things Korean.