Chusok 2008: Beautiful Weather & the Paraguayan Prez

All in all, with beautiful weather, a good crowd, dope entertainment and plenty of food, the Korean Thanksgiving/Harvest Festival/Chusok celebration at Flushing Meadows Corona Park, NYC, was awesome. I'll definitely hit it up again next year. They don't even celebrate it like that in Korea! It's usually a stay at home w/ the fam kinda of holiday. But here in the NYC, it's big!

And, what made this day even cooler was that when I was heading back to the train, I came across a small gathering of people with Paraguayan flags. They were waiting to hear the president of Paraguay speak! What a crazy, cool coincidence. This is exactly why I love New York, Queens, and Flushing!

So, here's a few pics of the beautiful weather that day, and then a few more of the President Lugo of Paraguay.

Chusok 2008 Pics (part 6)

Wrestling. WWF. WCW. WWE. Sumo. Greco-Roman. Whatever kind, it's all cool.

Korean wrestling, called Ssireum 씨름, is also pretty damn cool.

And at the Chusok festival in Flushing Meadows Corona Park I saw Ssireum in person for the very first time.

I took a few pics of the event to share with you.

Have a look and let me know what you think. According to my friends, it's not as big as it used to be in Korea. But these guys were doing a great job of keeping the tradition alive and having a fun at the same time.

Chusok 2008 Pics (part 5) CELEBS!

Alrighty y'all, here are the long awaited pics of the celebs at NYC's Chusok 2008 at Flushing Meadows Corona Park:
Hot 97's Miss Info giving the introduction for Min.
Min (1)
Min (2)

G-Soul
J-Lim (1)
J-Lim (2)
Wonder Girls (1) --I was too far away for these
Wonder Girls (2)
JYP (aka Jin Young Park) (1)
JYP (2)

More Chusok 2008 Pics:
Part one.
Part two.
Part three.
Part four.

Chusok 2008 Pics (part 4)

The Banners.


The Cars (The new Hyundai Genesis).


The VIPs (City Councilman John Liu, left, handing Korean Produce Association President an award, right)


More to come... (Part 5 will be the celebrities post so check back tomorrow!)

More Chusok 2008 Pics:
Part one.
Part two.
Part three.

Chusok 2008 Pics (part 3)

Over on the wrestling grounds, this girl was ripping it up on the electric violin. People started jumping in and having fun. The old guy was having a good time.
Chusok 2008 Pics:
Part one.
Part two.

Chusok 2008 Pics (part 2)

DJ (Jae-Hyun Park?) JHP from AM 1660 held the crowd as they waited impatiently in front of the main stage until the musicians performed.

A bit later he was singing a ppongjjak/trot song. The audience was pretty young, so I might have been one of the only ones enjoying it! After all, ppongjjak (aka trot or "teuroteu" 트롯트) is my favorite kind of Korean music.
Chusok 2008 part 1.

"JYP?? No, I'm JHP..."



Singing up a storm--some old ppongjjak/trot stuff.

Chusok 2008 Pics (part 1)

These buses, picking up in Flushing, were taking people to Flushing Meadows Park for the 2008 Korean Thanksgiving Festival. I thought it would be faster than taking the train. Man, was I ever wrong. It took about 40 minutes for the first bus to come. There were so many people that it quickly filled up and took off. I wasn't about to wait another 40 mins, but then, right behind the first shiny blue bus, pulls up a shiny, white bus. Just my luck, the bus is filled to capacity by the time I get to the front of the line.


"Okay. I've waited this long and there will probably be another bus directly after this one," I think to myself. Another 30 minutes goes by and instead of heading for the almighty 7-train, I wait it out, as after all, once you've waited that long, you've crossed the point of no return. Finally, I make it onto a Flushing Meadows Park bound bus!


I finally made it to the park! There was already a sizable crowd. And on stage there was a sick Taekwondo demonstration.

Chusok 2008

More pics to come!

Korean Harvest Festival @ Flushing Meadows Park

2008's Chusok, aka, Korean Harvest Festival, aka Korean Thanksgiving, taking place today and tomorrow in Flushing Meadows Corona Park is going to be big. Some estimate that as many as 30,000 people will show.
The food is going to be off the meter. This is a pic from 2007's festival (from over at Eating in Translation).

The official park website only reflects today's goings on, but according to John over at his About Queens blog, it's going on both today and tomorrow (09.20-21.08). Today's the rehearsal for the performers, while tomorrow's the real deal. Supposed to be some famous Korean performers. According to Last.fm, "Park Jin Young and the Wonder Girls are going to be the main highlights with appearances also by G-Soul, J Lim and Min." I'm not a huge fan of K-Pop (hope I don't offend anyone), but I have heard the Wonder Girls are getting big. There's a blog dediacted to them, here.