JISAN ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last weekend was the weekend I'd been waiting for for a long time. Jisan Valley Rock festival! Tickets (which were remarkably cheap for what we got), were booked months in advance (ok, well a month) and everything was sorted. I'd even cheekily changed my 2 day ticket to a 3 the week before, so that I could take in the full weekend. However, the two Friday bands that I was most excited about, Jimmy Eat World and Fall Out Boy (I know, it's a dirty, dirty habit, but I can't help it. Give me emo boys in eyeliner - I'm a sucker!) played Friday around the time I finished work - boo!!!!!





I ran home for work and waited for the call from Christina to tell me that she was at Suwon Station, which was where she was getting the shuttle bus to from Gimpo, the airport that she lands in when she comes over to stay (Christina lives on Jeju - lucky thing!) and then I headed over to meet her. Originally, we were going to catch a bus over to Jisan resort, which is located about 40 mins from Incheon city, in the same province as YoungTong but, seeing as Christina met a couple of guys who were going the same way and I got a lovely taxi man, we took a cab the whole way there, for 50,000, which was pretty good seeing as the bus would have ended up being more expensive for us and would have taken hours longer.





We arrived at the resort about 7, just when it was starting to get dark, and met up with Busan Ben and his friends Colleen and Jack. We made our way straight to campsite A, which was where Houley was camping that came highly recommended (even though it was on a hill). Ben, Jack and Colleen wasted no time putting up their tent perfectly whilst Christina and I (ok, mostly Christina), threw ours up, with the resulting 'tent' looking like a dying, wrinkled turtle. We got the last laugh later on though, seeing as it pee'd it down and Ben's tent wasn't waterproof. We had an extra 3 bodies taking up space in our tent that night!


Around the time we'd finished putting up the tents, we heard the first chords of the Starsailor set, so took ourselves swiftly down to the Green Stage, which, brilliantly, was right near our site. We grabbed some beer and headed in. I have to say I was very impressed by Starsailor and didn't even realise how many of their songs I knew, never really having given them the time of day before. Definately glad that I saw them though, their set was up there with one of the best acts I saw the whole weekend, and the standard was high. During the set we saw my friend Veronica, who was just at the fest for the night and looked very happy to be there - I would have hated to have left though, takes a stronger woman than I to leave the festivities, class the next day or no! Afterwards Christina disappeared off to get changed, so Ben, Jack, Colleen and I waited for her for a while before realising the she'd actually disappeared and that the figure Colleen had seen running to the main stage was, in fact, the girl herself. We hurried over to the main stage sans Christina to watch Weezer, who were headlining Friday night. Weezer did play a brilliant set, but I was pretty shocked to see how old they were getting, there were wrinkles and bald heads all around - sorry Weezer, but it's true! Still, much dancing and singing was had, specially to 'Island in the Sun,' which was played brilliantly. When the set had finished, we headed to the Jaegermeister tent, next to the Green stage and which, after the last band each night turned into the Electro Session tent, and drank some interesting cocktails, I got an excellent piggy back from Ben and we all met up with a very wasted Houley. The rest of the night remains a blur, but I have been reliably informed that I fell asleep with my eyes open, which drew a crowd, and the rest of the pictures speak for themselves. An excellent eve!





After the departure of Colleen, Jack and Ben from our tent, Christina and I awoke about 10am and decided to head to the swimming pool. A note on the resort here - it's awesome. I was expecting a Glasto style venue, but I was completely mistaken. There was a swimming pool, food hall, good lockers, real toilets, which were amazing, however the portaloos that were also provided were brilliant too, being supplied with lots of loo roll and soap and being kept very clean. Now, I know it's not the festival thing to be clean yourself, nevermind shower or swim, but hell, this is Korea, so I did it! Haha! I can be so crazy sometimes. . .



After a swim and a wash we headed to the main stage, found the Busan massive and collapsed, dozing in the sun whilst listening to some excellent bands - some Korean, some not. Of note were the amazing Human Instinct, a random old geezer band from New Zealand, who got us boogieing away, and Uncle Kim, who were equally as brilliant. I met with a couple of Koreans and we danced 'til sweat was pouring off us. Faye arrived, as did Ben and Frank and we spent a perfect afternoon doing nothing but dancing and having fun whilst looking at the mountains nearby and the beautiful dragonflies who were drifting over the venue all weekend - mating season you see, they were procreating everywhere, though I prefer to think they were there for the music.



That evening, after we'd freshened up somewhat, we grabbed some bbq ribs and headed back to the main stage for Basement Jaxx. From what I've heard Faye likes them, though she was totally subdued during the entire set. Honestly. She also didn't ask everyone she met for the rest of the weekend if BJ were not the best live band they'd ever seen, ever. The atmosphere for Basement Jaxx was pretty electric and all the Westerners and Koreans were going equally mad. Houley decided, just before the set however, to pass out, on his face, which was a worry. Still, after some shaking and a couple of slaps from Faye and I he rolled over, shouted 'an dae' a couple of times and then let us haul him up - but only after trying to curl up and sleep round our ankles. Entertaining, after the original panic! The set was awesome and we all jumped around like crazies until the very end. Those women know how to shake it, and the tunes, as always, were immense. After Jaxx finished we all headed off our own way for a little while, with Faye and I going for a walk around the lovely lake at the back of the site and the others carrying on drinking. On the way back from the lake, I found myself an amazing tent, by itself in the middle of the path, so I stole it, wore it and ran around the main stage, causing corruption and making friends for an hour of so. Much fun, however, it was cut short just before I could get to the dance stage (I was preparing to start a 'how many Korean's can you fit in a tent?' competition) by two Koreans chasing me across a path screaming that I had stolen their tent. Whoops! Turns out it did belong to someone after all, though why they'd leave it in the middle of a path, with no possessions in, is beyond me. Still, I apologised and walked away a little abashed. Anyway, the rest of the night was spent dancing, chatting and generally doing what you do at festivals, however, for once, I headed to bed relatively sober about 3, which was actually a stupid idea, as I could feel the floor - making for a less comfortable nights sleep than the day before! You try to be sensible....



Sunday arrived with a birdsong and a ray of sun, and the groans of Frank, Faye and Christina, who were far more hungover than I, for once. Faye and I left the other two to nurse their heads while we went for some breakfast kimchi jigae and a shower, in order to feel human for the rest of the day and wash off all the dancing sweat. Pretty sure we did not smell to good when we woke up. After meeting up with Trev, Houley and the rest of the Suwon lot, we headed to the beer tents by the main stage and sat down to have a bit of a Sunday session and watch of the world go by. After a while, Faye, Ben and I decided to head off for a bit of a nap by the entrance fountain, which set us up royally, and got rid of the residual hangover (I was just tired, honest!) so that the drinking could commence again. We lost Ben somewhere after that, but the Butch and I had an awesome couple of hours walking about and chatting to people, and the birth of the CHUNON dance was heralded about 7 o'clock. For those of you that are unfamiliar with CHUNON, well, it's hard to explain. Generally a chunon is one thousand one, and it all stemmed from a day out and another crazy ajumma. Anyway, the dance rocks - that's all you need to know. We finally met up with the rest of the group and headed to the front of the main stage for Oasis. Faye and I were hoping to hear 'Stand By Me,' which we'd earlier dubbed our song, but alas, it wasn't to be. They did however, belt out the old classics and everyone went suitably wild. Turns out that it was one of Oasis' last gigs, which is sad, though we should have seen it coming as Noel and Liam were cocks to each other all night, repeatedly walking off stage etc . On another note, Noel kept on his parka, despite the sweltering heat, all set. You could actually see the sweat through the jacket by the end of the night. Not very nice at all.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end, so after Oasis Faye, Christina, Trev and I headed to a taxi rank and got a taxi home, all feeling a little poorer, a little heavier and a lot happier. Truly, Jisan did rock.