Beer Fest!

In a very well-to-do area of Busan there was a lovely beer festival that ends today. I have been there three times all of which were great. There were obviously some major differences in between this Beer Fest and the typical Craft Brewery Tastings and Oktoberfest. The festival was outside in a big open square with plastic tables and chairs in the middle and food stations and taps on three sides and a stage on the other. I'd say there were about 250 to 400 people at the event.

1. Admission was 8,000 won. They give you a plastic glass and a wristband and then you can drink all the beer you want until 11:00 pm. Pay 8 dollars to drink as much beer as possible? That would lead to drunken anarchy in less than 40 minutes anywhere in North America.

2. This was not really a beer festival in a sense because there was only one kind of beer. Mind you it was MAX which is one of the better Korean Beers. This explains the admission price.

3.  There was a whole bunch of entertainment: Live performers, dance offs, televised sports and a kiss-cam. They had a stage on one side of the square and the backdrop was a huge screen where they televised the baseball games. The kiss-cams were hilarious because when it went to an old couple the man would lay it on the poor old lady and then celebrate like he just threw the final out in the World Series. There were cameras around the square that would film the regular Joes and Janes dancing to Gangnam Style and Gentleman. It was really interactive and I think everyone enjoyed it, especially the kids.

4. Yes, there were kids at this beer festival. I guess its because there isn't this huge fear of exposing kids to drunk people and babysitters are so hard to find any day of the week because all Korean students do is study night and day.

5. People were not overly rowdy or even sloppy at this event. It's not like a kegger, tailgater or a country music festival. Thus, there was no reason to have security or an ambulance in earshot.

6. There were 4 urinals and one was clogged.