Andong Mask-Dance Festival

Actually, the Andong Mask-Dance Festival was several weekends ago, but I'm always behind in posting.

Basically, the festival celebrates traditional mask-masking and traditional mask dances. We didn't get to see as many performances as I would have liked, but it was blast. We ate lots of unhealthy fair food, made masks, and wandered around. There were tons of other foreigners there. Clearly, everyone at Orientation had put this on the to-do list. The weather was very nice, and we stayed one night in Andong. We didn't really see any of the city other than the festival grounds, though.

More pictures after the cut!

Sandy enjoys the fair food. I ate the Korean version of a corndog and mini doughnuts here! Good stuff.

Geoff hangs out with the locals. This guy is wearing a traditional outfit and hat.

There were masks on display everywhere, including these cool sculptures scattered around the area.

Puppets wearing traditional costumes and masks hang from many of the shops.

Sandy tries on a pretty mask at another shop.

 I had really been craving some steamed buns, and lo and behold, the food tent we walk into sells them. It was so cool, I had to take a picture. I believe they are called 찐빵 in Korean.

Even the Little Prince was getting into the festivities! There were several statues of famous characters wearing masks, but this, of course, was my favorite.

Sandy and I went to a mask-making shop, where you could decorate pre-made masks with colored glue beads. It worked really well and made amazingly little mess!

Sandy wearing her mask and holding mine. She looks pretty creepy, eh?

After making masks, Sandy and I dressed up in costumes and had our pictures taken with some mannequins.

 Here I am with the mannequins.

A cool statue.

 Totems strung with prayers, written on small scraps of paper and tied to ropes. There was also a guy demonstrating the carving technique.

Even the Dark Knight was there. Fortuantely, he agreed to take this photo with me. Is it me or is the success of the Nolan films giving him a big head? Yuk yuk.

Also, possibly a Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtle wearing a traditional mask as his shell.

We watched a traditional street performance. There was no talking, just pantomime, music, and audience participation.

The girl in the middle is dressed as a typical schoolgirl/tourist, posing for a photo.

Sandy got to participate, too!

There was a Hanbok fashion show. Sadly, I didn't get to watch much of it, but the hanboks in it used beautiful fall colors and patterns. Most of the haboks I see around are very brightly colored, but there was something really elegant about these muted colors and styles. I didn't get the best ones on film, though.

At night there was a fireworks show. It began with this performance. What you can't see is that this is a picture of a cliff overlooking a river. At the top of the cliff were men waiting to light something (logs? I don't know) on fire. When the crowd gathered on the opposite side of the river shouted out the cue, the men would throw the burning object off the cliff to the brush below, which effectively started a bonfire. This is the burning object falling. The little lights at the bottom are people on a boat on the river.

Another picture of a burning object falling down the cliff. This is where my camera battery died, so I didn't get any pictures of the actual fireworks, which were really awesome. We were so close, they were huge and loud, which is just how fireworks should be!