Atlanta Korean Festival

This year the Korean festival was held in Norcross, much closer to me! I wish the weather would’ve been better. I think the festival just didn’t have that. Otherwise, it would’ve been a great festival despite all that. I did hope for more vendors but it was a cold and windy day. There were some activities inside the building. Some were scheduled to be outside but because of the weather, I’m sure it got canceled.
I did like the Korean art that was displayed on the top floor. I enjoyed listening to people on stage sing and look at the hanboks. I am looking forward to going next year, especially if it’s going to be in Norcross. I just hope for better weather.

Hosted in Norcross this year, the festival was still going on even though the rain from the hurricane put a damper on things. Literally too.
The event was held inside at the stage area with the typical singing and performances.
There were traditional Korean dresses on display. There was even a neat pic taking area.
Outside there were food booths and vendor booths mostly selling or advertising something, not so much booths giving away freebies.
Parking was available and okay. The lot was pretty big, and since people came and go pretty often, finding a space wasn’t terrible.

I attended the 4^th Annual Atlanta Koreal Festival at Suwanee Town Center Park this past weekend and had a good time. There isn’t much information available online about this event, especially in English. The only reason I found out this event even existed is because of Angela H’s event posting here on Unilocal (
).
If you’re into or have an appreciation for Korean or just Asian culture in general, the Korean Festival is definitely worth checking out at least once. The venue (Suwanee Town Center Park) is nice and the event is very family and pet-​friendly. Suwanee Town Center is a nice little outdoor mall with park, playground, and fountain. Suwanee City Hall is also located here. The park is big and clean and there’s a stage in the center where all of the festival’s performances are held.
I went on Saturday afternoon and quite a bit of people showed up. It was busy, but not packed or outrageous. It was a good, manageable crowd size and there were hardly any lines. Several tents were set up around the park. My favorite and the most popular tents were the «food court» tents. A variety of restaurants and vendors sold food and drinks here including sundae (Korean blood sausage) and odeng (Korean fish cake on a stick). There were also several outdoor grills where chefs were making galbi (Korean BBQ short ribs) in large quantities. The smoky smell of the cooked meat was absolutely mouth-​watering.
I tried the sundae and the odeng. IIRC, prices were $ 6 (or was it $ 8? cash only) for each. Both were delicious. The sundae was sliced on the spot by an old Korean lady. The staff recommended I season the sundae with the pre-​packaged salt packets, but I think I overseaoned it. You should try it first without seasoning. The odeng was great. One order came with three sticks of fish cake in a large Styrofoam cupful of steaming broth. The portions were big and the fish cake was savory. I also tried some of the $ 3.50 iced coffee from Kopiara, presumably a Korean coffee roasting company. It was very good and refreshing for an afternoon outdoors.
Other tents around the park included an assortment of vendors such as Morning Glory, Mega Mart, White Windmill Bakery and Café, and H Mart. H Mart was handing out coupon books. There was even one tent that was playing the Gangnam Style music video non-​stop and selling t-​shirts that said: «Keep Calm and Gangnam Style.» I wonder how many t-​shirts they sold. I also wonder if the trio manning that booth went insane from listening to Gangnam Style all day.
Center stage played host to many performances including traditional Korean dancing, taekwondo exhibitions, samul nori (traditional Korean drum performance), singing and K-​pop performances, and more. Everything was surprisingly entertaining to watch (I typically get bored with some of these performances). My favorite were the K-​pop covers performed by different musicians from males to females. Some bands were complete with guitar, keyboard, and/​or choreographed dancing. The day was capped off by two or three renditions of Gangnam Style, to which the entire audience in the park danced along, from little kids to the elderly. It was like a Gangnam Style flashmob!
The weather was beautiful, which really increased everyone’s enjoyment of the festival.
Parking was a little hard to come by, but you *should* be able to find a spot. Parking was free and there were several lots located in and around Suwanee Town Center. Just be sure to obey all the signs.

Having attended the Korean Festival for the past three years, it’s an annual tradition for my family to go. It’s held each fall and has always been at the same location — Suwanee Town Center Park. The main purpose is to «provide entertainment, food, and activities for family and friends while building awareness of metro Atlanta’s vibrant Korean American community.»
It’s free for all to attend, but per discussion with some of my friends, including Unilocal celebrity Daniel B., their publicity must be limited to the Korean community who listens to Atlanta Radio Korea (1040 AM) since they had never even heard of the Korean Festival in Suwanee. I wouldn’t have known about it if it weren’t for my parents who listen to the radio station regularly.
What I love about Suwanee Town Center Park is that parking is usually plentiful and, of course, free. However, as expected, it gets extremely difficult to find parking when there’s an event like this. So if you plan to meet someone at the Korean Festival at a certain time, you should arrive at the park around 10 to 15 minutes early to find parking.
The first Korean Festival held in 2009 was, hands down, the best I’ve attended to date. There were plenty of free giveaways for attendees, including Korean snacks and ramyun. They also gave away free raffle tickets to enter to win a variety of prizes, including plane tickets to Korea. Additionally, they had a gigantic «piñata» type of thing that contained candy, T-​shirts, and coupons for prizes. However, when the piñata burst open, a huge crowd of people (adults AND children!) rushed to grab whatever they could. In the process, they almost trampled a little girl. Since then, they never had the piñata again. Boo. Although we didn’t win anything from the raffle, my family and I got a bunch of free snacks. I also won a Korean drama DVD set by being the first to run up to the stage when it was up for grabs.
During the second and third Korean Festivals, it was obvious that the budget was a lot less than the first year. There weren’t nearly as many free giveaways as the first year. However, like the first year, they offered a free raffle ticket to every attendee to win various prizes.
At every festival, one of the highlights normally includes the food vendors/​stands. There are various tents set up with Korean foods like kimbab, odeng, soondae, and Korean BBQ like galbi and bulgogi. However, my family and I usually aren’t interested in the food. We bought some (overpriced) food during the first and second years and didn’t like it. But there are plenty of people who do enjoy it, so be sure to bring cash with you if you want to try some food at the festival.
Plenty of entertainment is available throughout the day, including traditional Korean games (prizes include Korean snacks/​ramyun), bands, b-​boy dancers, choirs, and traditional Korean dancers. Everything is free, so you can try each game and get some snacks if you win (or, if you’re lucky, a consolation prize if you lose). Or, you can simply sit in front of the stage with a snack in hand and watch performances all day long.
My favorite part of the Korean Festival is the dance and singing competitions. The judges choose three winners, and there are cash prizes. It’s really entertaining to watch, so I’ve attended Saturday AND Sunday each year to watch the competitions.
The 4^th annual Korean Festival was held from Saturday, October 20^th to Sunday, October 21^st. To be honest, this was my least favorite year. I didn’t play any of the free games or buy anything from the various vendors set up throughout the park, but I did watch the competitions and was hoping to enter the raffle for prizes. There were two major changes during this recent Korean Festival:
1. At $ 100 per raffle ticket (!!!), the drawing for prizes this year was NOT free. Yes, the grand prize was a car ($ 60,000 value), but hardly anyone even bought raffle tickets. Fail. (Win for the winners, though, for having such great chances of winning!).
2. The dance and singing competitions were combined into one «Talent Show,» all held on Sunday. So it was almost pointless for me to attend on Saturday. I did, however, stick around for a bit since some of my friends (fellow Unilocalers!) attended for the very first time. Fortunately, the Talent Show on Sunday was very entertaining and worth attending. There was one guy who tried REALLY hard to sing and dance like Bi (Rain), but ultimately did not succeed. After the competition, all contestants and anyone from the audience who wanted to join went up on stage to dance to Psy’s «GangNam Style.»
Overall, the Korean Festival gets 3 stars for being an «OK,» free annual festival. I’m sure I’ll attend again next year, but hopefully the organizers will take all the feedback from this year and make it the best one yet. Anyone who’s curious should attend at least once, but get there early to get the most freebies/​giveaways!
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