2019 Yeouido Flower Festival

Winter has passed and spring has come, and with it the annual Yeouido Flower Festival, featuring the cherry blossoms, and my annual post about it. The weather has been slow to recognize that spring has sprung, and I was worried the flowers would be slow, too. Judge for yourself:


So, they were there in profusion, and so were the flower-lovers. And I was happy to see the Yeongdeungpo-gu officials have upgraded the trash receptacles--until a few years ago there were virtually none to be found. They also added a photo-op focused on the flowers.


There were the usual street performers and artists, but I did not see a single mascot offering photo-ops, and instead there was a display of children's books--I'm all about books, but I like a photo with a dragon or Lego samurai as well ...


A couple more flowers, these from my neighborhood when I got home, and a selfie.

2018 Yeouido Flower Festival

Despite the impoverished levels of attention the Seoul Patch receives from Tuttle these days, it would be more than remiss of me to skip the annual Yeouido cherry blossom festival post. The festival officially opened on Saturday, but the weekend weather was less than ideal, so I finally got there yesterday after school. There were plenty of people but nothing like what you would have seen on, say, Saturday at 2 PM. The cherry blossoms don't really care how many people are looking at them, they bloom anyway.


The cherry trees run around the north end of Yeouido Island, immediately adjacent to the Korean Legislature facilities. This time, the gates were open, so I wandered through the park area and got a couple of shots of statuary:


That last one is just titled 대한국인 Korean Person.

Before I come to the final, obligatory shot of myself on the sidewalk with the cherries and the city blossoming behind me, I want to point out to anyone that's new around here that they can see lots of pictures of each previous festival since 2009: just click on the cherry blossom festival link in the tag cloud on the right side.
In fact, that might be a good idea, because a) this was a quick visit, and b) I came directly from work so I did not bring my Nikon. All these pics came from my iPhone.

13th Yeouido Spring Blossom Festival

There are only so many good photo ops at the Cherry Blossom Festival, so I have used this one virtually every year--it has cherry blossoms, the Han River and the Seoul skyline. Of course, the flowers are the star of the show:


There are also street performers:


...art:


...a "powder room" (new this year):


...and an old-timey coffee shop (new last year):


There are also some other good photo ops:


...participation opportunities:


...and other sorts of flowers besides ornamental cherries:


The dates for this year's festival are April 1 to April 10, so you have one more chance!

Yeouido Cherry Blossom Festival 2015

This marked my appearance at the seventh consecutive 영등포 여의도 봄꽃축제. Hundreds of mature cherry trees line Yunjungno, a "gift" from the government of Japan, around the same time they gifted the US with the ones that populate the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC. I put gift in quotes there because Japan had invaded and occupied Korea at that time. Anyway, they are a lovely sight:


In addition to the flowers, there are a number of other sights, from Buddhist monks to waygookin musicians:


I go along mainly for the photo ops with the teeming mascots:


There were loads of Lego characters, such as the Lego lizard above, but I think I took advantage of them, because this guy finally had enough:


Anyway, the star of the show is the cherry blossoms, so here are some more nice shots (remember, you can click to see much larger versions):


We have seen that the street of interest is lined with cherry trees, but the streets leading here are lined as well--with vendors. They mostly sell street food and cold beverages, which I'm frankly less than interested in, considering my follow-up visit to VIPs Steakhouse. But this caught my eye, the delicious 전주 초코파이, or Jeonju-style choco pie:


I picked up a whole box, but don't bother to ask, they're mainly for my co-teachers, office lady, VP and my ping-pong comrades, including the principal. Re-contracting time is coming up soon...