Remember, remember the 10th of November?

  Busan, Korea Rep.
Friday, November 10, 2006

Rewrite the history books, it turns out THE night for fireworks (at least in South Korea) is not Guy Fawkes night on the 5th, but actually the 10th of November when the rather grandly named 2nd International Busan Fireworks Festival took place. We gathered there would be some sort of show by deciphering one of the many posters around town, so we made the trip back into the city by bus for the evening as we'd already de-camped up the coast.

We're really glad we made the effort as the show was pretty amazing. It turns out the premise for this pyrotechnic spectacular was the anniversary of the successful hosting of

1 Busan International Fireworks Festival

the 2005 APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) trade talks in the city - I suppose it makes as much sense as commemorating the fact a religious fanatic attempted to blow-up the Houses of Parliament.

We gathered on the beach with one million(!) expectant locals and, despite the fact it was pretty dark, started to attract quite a lot of attention. It began with the friendly motherly types who all cutched up a bit so we could squeeze in next to them, but the main

2 Busan International Fireworks Festival

focus of it came from a group of young teenage girls. They took great relish in being able to practice their English on us and squealed with delight everytime we said something that pleased or amused them (this proved to be most things - like our names, the fact that we were married and lived in London...). But the biggest excitement of all was saved for the "revelation" that we both have blue eyes! This delighted them all and many photographs had to be taken.

3 Busan International Fireworks Festival

All this excitement was defused slightly by the awful speeches the mayor and the deputy director of finance (or someone similar) made before the performance - you needn't worry that we didn't catch the whole flavour of it, as every last dull detail was studiously translated into English. After a few minutes of sitting through the finer nuances of local government fiscal policy regarding public entertainment displays we were at last rewarded with what we had come to see - an amazing fireworks show.

5 Busan International Fireworks Festival

They billed it as a multi-media show - what that meant in effect was some lazers on the bridge, hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of gunpowder and a soundtrack that would make an eclectic Desert Island Discs collection. We started with a booming crescendo of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, closely followed by Jimmy Mac by Martha Reeves & the Vandellas and rounded off with some Korean slush. Pure class!

The fireworks were just breathtaking - they were set off from the bridge and a barge in the harbour so reflected beautifully off the water. The display lasted about 45 minutes and everytime you thought that was it, another round would be set off.

4 Busan International Fireworks Festival

Gathering ourselves together after the performance we were once again approached by some Koreans eager to make our acquaintance. A twenty-something man came bounding up and just said "I need foreigner photo!" - before we could object we were being positioned and papped. Bewildering.

All in all more eventful (and dare we say it spectacular) than your average display back home!