This heart's on fire

One of the biggest festivals, possibly the biggest, on Jeju is the Fire Festival, celebrated annually in February. By this time, almost everyone who has blog on Jeju has already mentioned something about it, posted pictures, or uploaded videos. So I'm going to do my part by adding my two cents to the overpublished pile of information on this subject.

I spent my time at the festival like many others, taking pictures and video with both cameras. Hopefully I'll be able to put together another video for Jeju Life with the footage I've captured.

The festival takes place over a few days, but by far the best day is the last, when they finally set the oreum on fire at dusk. Coincidentally, the festival landed on the same day as Valentine's day this year; what better way to celebrate a day of love with your friends, or family, then by setting a hill on fire. Its easy to see why its such a popular event: drinking + fireworks + mountain set on fire = awesome.

Another important issue worth mentioning is that only a week before the festival, somewhere on mainland Korea, another similar event was held, however, the festival didn't end well. The winds were so strong that the fire got out of control and killed eight people and injured dozens more.

This of course brought a lot of attention to Jeju's festival, and there were even rumors of the fire being cancelled. When Saturday, the last day of the festival, finally rolled around, weather conditions were fortunately looking more optimistic.

At around 2:30 in the afternoon, Brian, Mike, and myself, grabbed a bus headed for the festival. I was quite surprised at the turnout when we arrived. Make-shift parking lots were packed with cars, trucks, and tour buses; traffic was even more clustered.

Buses going to and from Jeju-si and Seogwipo-si were stopping at designated areas. More and more people arrived every minute. We managed to cross the road, with the help of some traffic officers, and walked through the gates heading down the road towards the oreum.



There are dozens of tents and trucks setup with every random thing you would expect to be at a Korean festival; some were even selling winter coats.



As we got closer to the center of the tent city that surrounded the oreum, we came upon some interestingly dressed Koreans. One wore some battle armor; another I’m guessing was wearing some Mongolian armor, and the last wore some traditional Korean garb. Near them were statues made up entirely of oranges. My favourite was the Dol-hareubang one.

Both Brian and I were on the lookout for good photograph opportunities, and the most obvious was the oreum in front of us. Passing by a staged area, like many others before us, we started the steep hike up the side of the hill.



We passed by a table with some people handing out tea, so Mike and I grabbed some; the tea would prove to be a wise decision as we climbed further. There was also a slide setup on the side of this oreum, where kids used sleds to slide down a ramp and onto the grassy hill. Mike and I were amused at the idea, but never got the chance to try for ourselves.

On the way up the hill there was a man sleeping, apparently someone later called the paramedics, thinking that he was injured. The view got more impressive with every step closer to the top. We took a momentary break to regain our breath, and then climbed the last few steps to finally reach the crest.



As with most oreum around the island, the view was just spectacular. I counted almost thirty some other oreum on the horizon. Everyone was just enjoying the sights and a stroll along the hilltop.



We were getting a bit hungry and thirsty, so resumed our walking and started our descent down the other side of the oreum, back towards the city of tents. There were these ridiculous sized kites flying around, and as we walked back towards the tents we came close enough to get some pictures.

The kites were all shapes and sizes: from the hand-made classic diamond shape, to the more intricate forty foot long cobra shaped kite. One guy was doing all sort of loops and extreme flying with his kite; I was jealous.



Near the base of the oreum are numerous flags with poles made of bamboo, traditional flags for a traditional festival.



We met up with some of our other friends on our way through the crowd, and we all decided some makgeollis was the best idea. We stopped not too far up the road; the first tent we found with seating. It was a much appreciated shelter from the wind, and had the supplies we needed.



What started as a table of 3 or 4 and eventually became a crowd of 9 or 10. The owner was not pleased with our annexation of his tent, but we were buying food and drinks, so I don’t understand why he was so upset. Xenophobia perhaps.



An hour or two passed and the sun began to set. I motioned to Brian and we both gathered our gear, and started our search for the perfect shooting location. The most obvious choice was this high point near some of the tents in the back; however, when we arrived, it was full of other photographers and their tripods.

At one point Brian even attempted to climb this metal hut, only to have some Koreans yelling at him. The roof didn’t seem that sturdy, so we decided to move towards some new territory.

We spotted a great vantage point behind the tent city. It was a bit of a walk, and unprotected from the wind, but it made for a more unique shooting location than what the hundred-some other photographers were using.



With our territory staked out, we set up our tripods and made sure we had ample drinking supplies for the show. Everyone around was doing the same thing; getting ready for the countdown.



As the final bit of sunlight disappeared behind the horizon, the spot lights came on and the crowd was ready for the show. And so it began…



The sky burst into light as the fireworks positioned all over the oreum lit up; I was impressed by how well it was organized.

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One after another, the fireworks continued to explode over our heads:



When the fireworks eventually slowed down, a crowd of people with torches began lining up along the base of the oreum. They selected people randomly, and even a few foreigners joined in on the fun. Now it was time for the big show to being: the fire.



It resembled some sort of missile or bomb attack going off, and afterwards everything erupted into flames.



By this time we had gotten all the footage we needed of the fireworks, so we thought it best to move in closer for some shots of the sweeping blaze. Mike and I scaled down a nearby wall and ran across this field towards the fire. As we did, we were approached by a Korean who was shouting to us, “Fire, Dangerous!”

Mike and I laughed a bit, since we were no where close to the fires yet, but apparently he was referring to the fireworks that were about to go off just next to us. As we moved in closer we realized what the man was talking about. We were probably standing too close, but the display was outstanding.



Standing there in front of the fire felt great; the warmth on our skin, the light in our eyes, it was an experience not to be missed.



We discovered that we were actually standing on the opposite side of the police line, but no one seemed to mind; it was great. We walked along the base of oreum getting some pictures, and when we finished we crossed back over.

Rejoining our comrades, we moved quickly towards the exit; hoping that we made it to the buses before the traffic mayhem was unleashed upon us. It took us a few minutes to catch a bus going to the city, but it would have been much worse trying to get a car out of that mess.



Once we had all boarded our transport, we were off to the bigger city to continue our celebrations.