With October ends peak festival season in Seoul. The city has been host to kimchi, drumming, photography, fashion, Korean wine, and dance festivals to name a few.

A couple of weeks back we caught a free show at Seoul City Plaza. It was part of the government sponsored Hi Seoul mega-festival.

We sat on the grass and watched men spin ribbons of fabric via pendulums attached to their heads. Next was some traditional Korean drumming, followed by Native American musicians. Then they combined forces to cover Simon and Garfunkel, "Apache", and Ennio Morricone. Is this what they call World Music? Because it's kind of awesome.

The fun didn't stop there; they had to throw in a wildcard. The emcee of the night introduced and interviewed a tall Korean man with long black hair, Confucius-goatee and a rumbling baritone voice. He was dressed in something flowing, white and sequined. I burst out laughing when it dawned on me that, wait, uh, this man is amazing.

What happened was: Drumming. DRUMMING! Fog. Breakdancing. Graceful dancing with fans. Lasers. FIRE! DRUMMING WITH FIRE! DRUMMING WITH WATER! ALL AT ONCE! BRING BACK THE RIBBON-HEADED PLATE SPINNERS! ADD THE KOREAN DRUMMERS! THE NATIVE AMERICANS TOO!

This show is free?

We looked around at the meagre turnout in disbelief. Hey, people of Seoul, your government has genetically combined Andrew WK, Criss Angel and pyrotechnics and 200 of you show up?



I looked him up. He is Choi So Ri, and apparently "started his musical career as drummer of BaekDuSan, one of the first Heavy Metal bands in 80s." I can believe that. Here are someone's photos of the troupe he's performing with, and him drumming with some pop'n'lock guy.

While we're on the topic of Korean drummers stealing the show, have you seen this?