Raucous music at the Cheonggye festival

We never made it to see the B-boys opening day at the Cheonggye Stream festival. It turns out that things move a bit slower with an infant in the picture. Who knew?

But we did get over there Sunday afternoon in time to catch some really wild traditional Korean music. There was a large crowd gathered around an incredibly loud band playing drums called jang-gu and Korean cymbal-gongs with an old timer playing a reed instrument called a senap into a microphone, which made its shrill sound almost unbelievably loud. The overall vibe was just great. Many people in the audience were pulled into the every swirling circle, handed drums, and then following the dancing around the circle. It is hard to relay exactly how loud this was, but I have provided a brief film clip which gives a small idea.

Festival Music Film clip

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