Each and every year our sleepy little town of Taebaek explodes with visitors. Actually we have a few different festivals that draw the crowds, but the biggest of the lot is the annual snow festival.
This year is the 14th (or 14st if you believe the advertising) year they have run this and year year gets larger than the last.
From the 22nd until the 31st of January 2010, Taebaek strained under the thousands of tourists that were shipped in for the event. The whole town was a venue for festivities, but the major draw card was the snow sculptures and festivities in and around Taebaek-san, our famous mountain. The area is called Dangol Square after the famous guy who proclaimed the nationality of Korea from atop the mountain. There are snow carvings, food stalls, thousands of people, a stage with musicians and thousands of people just having a good time.
Various huge snow carvings are dotted around the area, some are interactive, some just for looks. All tell a story.
You must excuse Theresa Teacher in some of the pictures. She really gets into the occasion 🙂
Typically for Korea, the event was sponsored by Hyundai, with the sonata as their newest model.
Some of the sculptures were designed for people to fit themselves into, giving great photo-ops.
One of the most popular attractions is the ice cafe, a cafe contained within an igloo or ice cave. They serve hot drinks, while you sit as tables made of ice. Very cold but rather unique.
Downtown Taebaek isn’t spared the festivities either, with lights adorning the main streets and ice carvings around the Hwangji Pond area.
Unfortunately we seemed to have missed out on the snow festival parade this year. Not having a timetable of events hurt our chances at catching things. Oh well. We saw it a few years back. Not like we will be around next year.
Leave a Reply