Ride to the Rhythm: Gwangju Rhythm and Bicycle Festival, pictures
Words and photos by Jason Newland
The first Gwangju Rhythm and Bicycle Festival was Saturday, September 9 th, 2012. I did not hear about it until Thursday night, September 7th, a mere twelve hours before the events registration closed. I shot off a late-night email to the English coordinator, Sarah Moon, with the required information to register, and she zapped one back saying I was good to go.
The Gwangju Rhythm and Bicycle Festival was a two-part event: a 15 kilometer jaunt from Sangmu’s Simin Park to the Seungchonbo Reservoir and a K-Pop concert at the Reservoir’s stage. I am vaguely familiar with Sangmu. Whenever I do get to Sangmu, I love the area; it is decorated with a variety of casual cafes, trendy restaurants, and nice parks. Easy to find, Simin Park was an unexpected delight. It is located a few blocks from the Sangmu Subway Exit 3 on the river. The park had a beautiful soccer field and statues of dinosaurs and strange books with stories literally popping out of the pages.
The event’s check-in was held in the main, concreted area of the park. Koreans and expats were at large, cruising about on expensive and inexpensive bikes. There were bikes that cost close to my yearly salary and bikes so broken I wondered how they expected to ride them one kilometer, much less 15 kilometers. Luckily for us with cheap bikes or no bikes at all, the Korean Tourism Agency had free bikes for participants to use; rather nice Appalachia mountain bikes. There were three or four booths for Koreans to check in and one booth for English speakers. Sarah Moon, the event coordinator, was working the English booth. She’s employed by the Korean Tourism Organization and resides in Seoul, Korea. She made herself very helpful by explaining the event’s commencement speech and schedule to the English-speakers: expats and tourists.
Around 500 Koreans and foreigners gathered at the park. A short commencement speech was held, then we were split into groups: groups A, B, and C. Group A was for the fast cyclists, people who could travel over 25km an hour, B was for cyclists who could go an average bicycling speed of 20km an hour, and group C was for the leisurely sort who enjoy a slow meander on their bicycles. The bike parade started at 3pm and it turned out the groups did not matter. The cyclists formed into lines and we were down the highway to the river bicycle path in Gwangju. Everyone stayed close together and moved at a casual speed of roughly 20km an hour.
15 kilometers is not a long bicycle ride, it takes about an hour to an hour and a half of casual cycling. The path from Simin Park to Seungchonbo Reservoir is an easy path, very flat, very few inclines, and a whole bunch of beautiful scenery along the river. The time breezed by and before we knew it, we were at the reservoir. I had a hard time believing the parade was over,
it felt like it had just begun. I was ready to peddle for another hour or two. We parked our bikes in a taped off area near the stage at the reservoir and the Korean Tourism Organization provided us with snacks and souvenirs: shrimp crisps, water, Capri Sun, an LED light for bicycles, and a free don kass and bulgogi dinner. My friends and I sat at the park and enjoyed the free meal and watched children play with bows and suction-cup arrows, bean bag tosses, and tiny spear throwing, while we waited for the K-Pop to start. The K-pop started around 7pm, however the band’s name eludes me.
The Korean Tourism Organization offered a free shuttle back, but I opted to walk a few kilometers to the nearest bus stop back to Gwangju. All in all it was an excellent event; nevertheless the bike ride could have been twice as long to double the enjoyment of chains spinning.