The morning of May 3rd was rainy, rainy, rainy. As I made my way towards the meeting point for my tour group in Gwangju, I was so worried about the rain interrupting the festival events. But even though the sky remained overcast the whole day, the rain went away to let us play! Yay!
I'll say right upfront that I did not see many butterflies. But there was so much to see and do at the festival that I didn't mind. Not to mention, the area was absolutely gorgeous. It was nice to spend a day surrounded by colorful flowers and greenery for a day.
Really, these pictures don't do the scenery justice. So beautiful.
The festival events included piglet wrangling, mud fish catching, "train" ride, traditional Korean games, pottery making, bike riding, carnival rides, international entertainment and street food (of course).
 |
| Foreign invasion! |
The first thing my group did was go to the ecology hall, which reminded me a lot of the Butterfly Pavilion in Colorado. Here, we got to release new butterflies into the room. It was exciting. One of my butterflies elegantly burst forth out the container and the other one just dropped straight to the ground...
 |
| "Wow this will be so fun" |
 |
| 3, 2, 1, RELEASE! |
 |
| "Be free, butterflies!" |
 |
| "Oh. That one. Is not moving. Oops." |
 |
| My hair was super frizzy and witchy that day but WHO CARES. I have a butterfly on my finger! |
 |
| This one likes Molly! |
And that was about it for actual butterfly-related events at this butterfly festival, as we moved onto piglet wrangling. I did not actually participate. I was looking forward to it but when we got there and I saw that they were lil' guys and heard that dreadful piglet squeal I lost interest. Here are some pictures of my friends having a good time, though:
Nearby was the fishing hole, where you could do some hand fishing in mud for little eel-like fish. Unfortunately, I was not prepared well to participate. Which is sad, because it looked so fun.
For some reason, there was a section of the butterfly festival dedicated to farm animals and Korean milk.
 |
| Learning about Korean milk farming |
 |
| Making custard with fresh milk |
 |
| Cute ducklings! |
 |
| Just milking a cow |
After a hard 30-minute day working the farm, Molly and I were off to explore the festival grounds more and get butterflies painted on our faces. Awwww yeah!
 |
| We didn't ask for the weird forehead flower part but the butterflies turned out nicely |
With our faces freshly painted, we were ready for some quality Korean festival street food. Street food is the best. At this festival, there was a row of food booths set up representing food from different countries. Some it was silly, like the German tent had these sausages that I see around Korea everywhere (meaning, I'm pretty positive they aren't from Germany). There was a Turkey stand selling shawarma but we actually have a place like that in downtown Gwangju. The Japanese stand had takoyaki, battered and fried wheat balls filled with diced octopus. I love takoyaki so that's what I went with.
We stumbled across a greenhouse garden that was so fun to look at.
 |
| Check out the sky pumpkins! So fun! |
I'm not sure how or why, but there were Ecuadorian performers and a booth selling handmade goods from Ecuador.
Molly and I did the "train" ride. It was advertised as a train but really it was a train of trolleys. This is where we struck up a conversation with one of the festival workers, who spoke English very well. His mother was working the bike rental area so after the train ride, he arranged a free bike ride for us! It was super sweet. Molly and I thought we were each getting our own bike but, let's just say, I rode a tandem bike for the first time in my life! Unfortunately, I don't have any evidence of this!
We continued to wonder the beautiful festival area. As we were looking at a hand-made soap booth, we got tracked down by our tour group's photographers. They had us do several silly poses with these fake butterflies.
 |
| Feeling a little silly with the butterfly on my head...that was not by choice |
 |
| Checking out hand-made soaps |
Of course, let's not forget about the entertainment. I really enjoy watching festival performances. Here is one where the performers are wearing the silliest, most amazing hats I've ever seen. Watch them spin!
And then, suddenly in the midst of traditional music, these guys pop out on stage!
The Hampyeong Butterfly Festival is a great event to go to, especially if you live close by. I'm not so sure I would travel from Seoul just for this festival if that's where I lived but if you're in the area, do it for sure!
