Chungju World Martial Arts Festival

Chungju World Martial Arts Festival 2011.

http://visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_2_2.jsp?cate=&area=&dateStart=01-01-2011&startDate=20110101&dateEnd=&endDate=&keyword=&category=&areaCode=&gotoPage=&stype=&cid=697308&out_service=

Currently the festival I being held until 8 September 2011 and I was lucky enough to attend on Saturday. About 2 hours from Seoul on the bus we arrived at about 12pm and began our day looking around. The place was quite large and had one big main stage and a small stage further out the back with a section for horse mounted archery and sword play.

We headed toward the Museum first which is quite small but spaced out over 3 or so levels. There were weapons and models of some of the fighting arts from around the world.

From there we had lunch and proceeded to look at the events. The back stage had children’s displays from such arts as Kendo, Hapkido and Taekwondo as well as B-Boy and motorcycle displays. Moving onto the main stage at 3pm we saw some Chinese forms and a Taekwondo display team.

I left a little confused however as the event itself seemed a little slow without much in the way of a “world” exhibition although I did see some other nations walking around in their track suits. No stalls selling things or giving information or samples of things like protein bars or drinks or things like that and not much actually on the schedule. So I am still a little confused about the purpose of the event. However it was a nice sunny day for once and I enjoyed the time away from the city.

Until next week have a fantastic time! :)