From October 18 through to October 20 the first Geomun Oreum Hue Hue Festival took place at the Jeju World Natural Heritage Center and the surrounding local area.
Hue also means ‘color’ in English while in Chinese it alludes to ‘taking a rest’. Thus the motto for the festival can be likened to that of being seduced by color while adjusting to a slow life at the same time.
The events were split into exhibition experience booths, stage performances, and actually getting to trek the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Geomun Oreum. I’m going to detail the trekking in a separate story. For now I’ll stick with the booths and stage performances.
Of the 72 booths at the festival, taking out the 2 organizing spots, 3 to 39 were related to the natural cloth dying process while 40 to 57 explored try and buy black food. 58 to 68 revealed cheese, chocolate, black pottery, green tea soap, hanji paper art craft and various other products.
I went to experience the natural cloth dying process in which the first 100 participants received a handkerchief free of charge.
Kids were were using cloth with persimmon water then squeezing and drying it.
Korean made dye products from Naju and Yeongcheon were also on display for sale as were those from foreign lands including Taiwan and Malaysia.
The main stage played host to performances.
A local elementary school used the taepyeongso which is traditional Korean trumpet for their performance.
Though they started out a little nervously, they got better as time went on. As their elementary school is so small grades two through six all played together.
Once this was finished a fashion show began.
Naturally dyed clothes showcasing beauty and color appeared. They were not fancy clothes. They looked pure as if emphasizing it as Jeju’s color.
The most popular corner turned out to be the food sample area. Here black food and other local food was served. It was crowded to say the least.
If you took a photograph of yourself eating some black food in front of booth 48 and emailed the snap to the organizers a special souvenir would be sent in return.
Sangaetteok which is a Jeju style white rice cake was available.
However, omegittdeok proved to be the most popular of popular among the food booths.
Use millet power then make a donut shape with the dough. Steam then add red bean on the outside to complete the delicious treat.
You can see the participants. They turned out to be luckier or more patient than me. The queue was so long I didn’t get a chance to make the rice cake.
I wasn’t able to try the 6 different types of mulberry wine either.
However, I did get a nice cup of tea in the flower tea corner which helped wash away the taste of cured black pig led made in the style of Spanish ham called hamong.
It is a new food. My palette needed time to adjust to it.
* This festival was held with the support of the Jeju Tourism Association and the Jeju Tourism Culture Industry Promotion Agency at the Jeju World Natural Heritage Center located on Shingyoro 569-36.
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