Busan Sand Fest 2013

Who doesn't like a good sand fest?  Last weekend we headed to Busan to retrieve my tripod which I'd left in the Park Hyatt, and to check out Busan's Sand Fest.  We were expecting a bunch of awesome sand castles, but we got something a little different.  I don't know if it's like this every year, but this year the theme was famous characters from comics and movies.  Hulk, Batman, Golem, Spiderman, ET, James Bond, and PSY, of course, were all carved into giant piles of sand.  Meanwhile a concert raged and kids slid down a sand hill on sleds and amateur sand people tried their hand at creating a masterpiece.  Saturday night we walked around the sand piles and then headed over to the concert to have our faces melted with chants of "Busan 2013! Whooo Yeahhhhh."  Like all festivals in Korea there were a half billion people in attendance.  I liked this sand fest, but next year I want to see some castles.  Or maybe Sara and I will reserve a sand pile and build a castle of our own.  As always, here's 10 pictures and some foolish comments.

There were so many friggin' people I started trying to come up with ways to get them into the pictures.  The over the shoulder camera phone shot's my favorite.  This picture needs some Samsung style tagline like "Live in the Momentous" or "Advantage Create."

Sand.  James Sand.  Sara was unimpressed and said it just looked like some guy with a gun.

Giant Marilyn Monroe.

This Frankenstein might have been my favorite.  Look at that massive gourd.  

Nothing is complete without PSY.

This was the only person I saw dressed up.  Unless he wasn't dressed up and that's his face.

This was part of a DJ set.  These guys came out and did these goofy things with props like trumpets and saxophones.  And this girl danced.  It was pretty early when we were there, so it was mostly old people standing around straight-faced.  Good times.

Here they are dancing.  These head things are part of a traditional Korean dance which requires a lot of neck movements.  Imagine hoola hooping, only with your head.