A Weekend in Daegu

This weekend I went all the way to Daegu to see the Daegu Hip Hop Festival. So let me tell you a little bit about how it went. 

So first we had to go to Seoul Station in Yongsan around 1:00 in the afternoon to then board our 2:04 train. It was a little crowded around that time but not too bad and we were able to grab some food and snacks before boarding. Then we found our platform, the train arrived and we boarded. There was some confusion with the tickets and seating, for your own personal reference the “economy class” is the train car, and the stand-alone number is the seat. We found that if the number is even, it’s an aisle seat and if it’s odd then it will be a window seat. Then we began the four hour train ride. It was honestly pretty fun, I just watched out the window, listened to music and moved whenever the person beside me would get off. The most stressful part was making sure all five people in our group got off at the same stop since we were all in different cars, and getting my bag down from the overhead because it was really heavy and I didn’t want it to squash the person next to me. But everything went well and after leaving the station our hostel was close enough that we walked there with no problem. Then we dropped our stuff off and got dinner at a mandu place, and finished off with Dippin’ Dots and the man working all gave us all a large size for free. It was a really good night and seeing Daegu was really fun and interesting. It seemed way less crowded than Seoul, and there were a lot less foreigners as well, but everyone we met and interacted with was really nice and accommodating. The next day we just wandered around, went to a small amusement park and then returned to our hostel. 

Finally, on Sunday we went to the festival. The only problem was that it was going to rain. All day. And that it did. We left around 8 in the morning, got some food and took a taxi to the Daegu Sports Stadium. The venue was really pretty and the stadium was surrounded by mountains and forests. We packed ponchos and were pretty well shielded from the rain, but there weren’t many places to fully get out of the rain. So less than a half hour in my shoes and hair were soaked through. But the acts were so much fun and were so cool that I could hardly tell I was walking in two large puddles the entire time. There was also so much food to eat, while we were there we got garlic-soy chicken and sausage-rice cake skewers, we ate them under the awning which was practically open, and then got back to watching. We saw everyone ranging from BeWhy, to HyunA, to Epik High and ended with DynamicDuo. Although it was 10:00pm and we were drenched from head to toe, it was one of the best festivals I have ever been to. Particularly the last two acts, Epik High and DynamicDuo were incredible. Everyone in the crowd sang all the way through their sets, people were so excited, they were jumping and screaming, and it was so much fun. We left during the second encore which was then followed by a third. 

Although it took us over a half hour to get a taxi, altogether it was an amazing experience and such a fun day. My friend and I went into the festival not even knowing many of the acts or the music, but the artists had great crowd control and interactions that made it so much fun to be there. 

So if you are ever in Korea and are thinking about attending some type of event, I highly recommend a music festival. The one we went to was also great in that it only had one stage and therefore, the artists came out quickly after one another and you never had to miss part of someone’s set in order to go find another stage. I really enjoyed the way it was set up and oriented and the setlist went perfectly to schedule and even finished promptly. All-in-all, although the rain was insane, and I currently have a cold, the day was so much fun.