To culminate the year-long celebrations of the 60th Anniversary of the Philippines-Korea Diplomatic Relations, the Embassy of the Republic of Korea will hold a cultural festival at the Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo (Main Theater) of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).

The Korean Cultural Festival will feature unique traditional and modern cultural performances. On Nov. 25 the Embassy will host a cocktail reception to formally open the cultural festival. The opening ceremony will be headed by H.E. Choi Joong-Kyung, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the Philippines, and Executive Secretary Eduardo R. Ermita of the Republic of the Philippines. The reception will be immediately followed by gala concert titled “Dance of Chun-Hyang” performed by the National Dance Company of Korea (NDCK). The NDCK is the best Korean traditional dance company which has acted as the cultural ambassador of the Republic of Korea by maintaining and recreating traditional Korean dance and participating in international festivals like the Olympic Games and the 2002 World Cup Soccer Tournament.

On Nov. 26, Noreum-Machi will stage a captivating virtuosic percussion performance known as Samulnori, a modernized stage adaptation of p’ungmul nori which is a ritualistic celebration which originated from shamanism and animism and which is performed by rice farmers and professional musicians at harvest festivals. Noreum-Machi’s colorful program includes spectacular percussion dialogues, shamanic chants, and acrobatic dances.

Capping off the cultural festival is a KPop Concert at 5 p.m. on Nov. 27. The concert will feature performances by famous Korean pop groups SHINee, Mighty Mouth and Winterplay. SHINee is a contemporary R&B South Korea boy band who made their debut in 2008 with hit song “Replay” and composed of Onew, Jonghyun, Key, Minho and Taemin. The group won music awards including Best Newcomer Artist in the 18th Seoul Music Awards. Winterplay is a group that mixes several musical genres like pop, jazz, blues and bossa nova to create a unique relaxed sound and is composed of vocalist Moon Hye-won, and her band Lee Joo-han (trumpet), Choi Woo-joon (guitar), and So Eun-kyu (contrabass). Mighty Mouth is a rap duo well-known for collaborating with famous celebrities like Sun-Ye of Wondergirls and Yoon Eun-hye of “Coffee Prince” fame and composed of rappers 237 and Shorty j.

Admission to the Korea Cultural Festival is free. Tickets are available at the CCP. Tickets for the KPop concert are directly distributed by Arirang TV and its partner in the Philippines.

The Philippines-Korea Friendship Parade scheduled on Nov. 27 has been cancelled. Since Nov. 27 been recently declared as a non-working holiday only in the ARMM and an ordinary working day for the rest of the country, the Embassy worried that holding a street parade in the middle of a workday would cause heavy traffic to the city and inconvenience to the people of Manila. Hence the concern for the inconvenience was too big to proceed as scheduled, we decided to cancel this time for the sake of the people in Manila. Instead, the Friendship Parade is being considered to reschedule to next year, at a more convenient date when Philippines and Korea will commemorate the 60th year of the participation of Filipino soldiers in the Korean War.