Brussels festival celebrates Korean culture on 5 October

An opportunity to discover both traditional and contemporary Korean culture is coming to Brussels’ Forest National on Saturday 5 October.

Since its opening in 2013 the Korean Cultural Centre in Brussels has been bringing Korean culture to Brussels with exhibitions, films, concerts, workshops, language and cooking classes and festivals.

The K-Community Festival starts with workshops for the whole family, including calligraphy, Hanbok (traditional Korean dress), Ddakji (a game of skill using Korean origami folded paper tiles), lotus flower-making out of hanji paper and Ssireum (Korean folk wrestling where everything depends on the belt).

There’s also a chance to try Baduk (a board game where you stake out territory), Jegichagi (a Korean version of Hackysack but without rackets or a net, and played alone), Tuho (Korean horseshoes but in this case you are attempting to throw arrows into narrow necked jars) and Gonggi (a Korean children’s game involving pebbles and catching them on the back of your hand).

Then it’s time to enjoy performances that span the centuries. In traditional forms there will be Samulnori (gong and drum quartet), Minyo (bittersweet folk singing), Buchaechum (group fan dance that creates shapes of animals, flowers and natural elements), and Talchum (masked dancers satirising the absurdity of society).

And in contemporary forms two of the current top K-Pop groups will perform: Dreamcatcher, a girl group septet who have recently wrapped a world tour, and UP10TION, a boy group octet currently at the top of the charts in Korea and Japan.

The event starts at noon on 5 October at Forest National. Sorry! Our ticket prize draw has now closed and the winners have been notified by email.