40th Andong Mask Dance Festival

Today we had gone on a trip with the university to Andong. There is now held the traditional mask dance festival of South Korea.

The university therefore has organised an event for International students to go along there.

It was really a great event - we have watch one performance (one hour) which told a story of a married couple or what could be understood by it. As they spoken in Korean. Even though I could not understand on what exactly had been spoken from the actions the characters did and the type of dance they perform it could be understood.

It was not only one story, but many different kind of stories been told in the one hour of program. It was a great experience to see traditional dances from South Korea. In the end also a Thailand group had perform in the show.

If you are planning on travelling Korea in October time - I recommend to visit Andong for the Mask Dance Festival which is held right in the city centre behind the train station.

You may shall do some research before coming as there might be some cultural performance - such as a Korean weeding. We could not watch it as we already needed to leave - this is a disadvantage to come with a tour. Therefore come by yourself rather then on a tour.

We watched a few performance outside the main theatre, a few high school girls given a performance. It was easy to understand as no sounds had been used just acting and music. I could get the point on what they wanted to show us - but on other time it was hard to understand on what they had been showing with their hands. It might be just a Korean thing and not common for myself.

The day was really amazing and I was glad that I managed to sign up just in time to go to this event. As it was quickly booked out as only 40 places been available.