This year was my second time going to the Pentaport Rock Festival. The first time I went was in 2018, but after that the birth of two more children and a global pandemic got in the way of attending again. This time around we went for the full three days. It was hot, sunny, sweaty, and actually much more crowded than I remembered it being. It was a fun time overall, though. This post will contain a few reflections on some memorable aspects of the festival this year—the bands, the food, the venue, etc.

the bands

I wrote some short posts about some of the bands we saw this year:

• 새소년 (Sesoneon)

• 미역수엄 (Seaweed Mustache)

• 추다헤차지스 (Chudahye Chagis)

• 브로큰 발렌타인 (Broken Valentine)

• 파란노을 (Paran Noeul)

• Girl in Red

• Jack White

• 이상은 (Lee Tzsche)

the festival itself

the good

It takes a lot of help and cooperation from a lot of people to pull off a big festival like this. There were so many volunteers, cops, firefighters, and paramedics working to keep the peace and to keep everyone safe. I am really grateful to all those people for coming out on that exceptionally hot weekend so a bunch of folks could enjoy some loud live music.

Related to the festival being safe is the fact that it is rather family friendly. This time around we didn’t bring our kids, but there were many families there with kids of all ages. There is a dedicated tent section where you can set up a home base, which is nice if you are bringing kids, because the more kids you have the more stuff you will also end up bringing.

It is also cool that the tickets are totally free for seniors. I don’t know why they decided to do that, but I thought it was a nice gesture.

What was most impressive to me, though, was the generally positive attitude the bands had. So many performers came out to play with such fun-loving and grateful attitudes toward the audience, other bands, and the festival itself. It is inspiring to see, and it makes you feel like you are part of a little community in a way.

the not so good

My first impressions of the venue in 2018 were not great. The stages were too close to each other, and so there would be occassional interference between bands playing at the same time. This has not changed at all, which was a little bit disappointing. In general, the sound quality was not fantastic. For some bands it as downright terrible. At the time I thought that maybe it had something to do with the fact that many high rise buildings had been erected around the perimeter of the festival grounds. Sadly, the problem is apparently much more serious than that. I have heard that since 경기일보 (Kyeonggi Ilbo; KI) took over, they fired all of the old staff who had run the festival for years and instead hired some private contractors to work the sound and lighting. I am not sure if this is true or not, but this decreased audio quality is just one of the many things long time Pentaport-goers have criticized the festival for since being taken over by KI.

Many feel that the festival has become less of a rock festival, and more of a cash grab and publicity opportunity for the Kyeonggi Ilbo and Incheon’s tourism authority. For example, on the last day of the festival, one of the acts on the main stage was a K-pop idol group. Definitely not a rock band, but they drew a huge crowd of idol worshippers, so from the organizers’ point-of-view putting them in the lineup was a great idea. There is a major culture clash between the rock festival crowd and the idol scene. On that day, the picnic area was completely inundated with empty picnic blankets left there just to reserve the spots for other idol-ers.

In 2018, I was really peeved by the festival requiring that everyone sign up for a Kona card in order to make payments at the festival. And the best part was, their system was complete shit and flat out did not work! We ordered some ice cream for our daughter, and while we waited for the payment to go through it all melted. They kept this payment system until last year, then finally gave up on it apparently. Being able to pay in cash this time was nice, but some of the prices were a bit absurd.

One other thing that really bothers me about Pentaport is that they are really strict about what you can bring in with you. It used to be that you could only bring in a few unopened 500ml bottles of water per person. They now allow you to bring an unlimeted number, which is sensible because the festival is always held at the hottest time of the year—and it was damn hot. The best method is to just bring some large empty bottles or a reservoir/bladder and fill them up in the fountain (which is also the best way to stay cool out there).

I noticed this year that they started using reusable plastic dishes at all the vendors, which seems nice at first, but then you realize that all of that plastic will just be trash eventually too. I wish they would just use compostable paper and faux plastics instead. They also operated several cooling zones in the form of large coach busses you could sit in for a while to enjoy some AC. The problem is that these just constantly blow out exhaust, so everywhere you went outside of the stage area smelled like diesel fumes.

The lack of shade is always kind of a bummer—and the weird promotional VIP seating sections they setup are really just insult to injury. What is also frustrating is that the security guards will get on your case for just sitting in the grass because it is a designated “standing zone.” There is really nowhere else to go, and so for these guys to run around and tell people to stand up in mostly vacant areas of the lawn seems ridiculous to me.

the food

I usually have pretty low expectations of festival food. We always bring a little something from home at least for the sake of saving money. I was pleased with some of the things we tried (even though they were probably overpriced). On the first night we had vegan tacos which were actually really tasty. I think the best thing we had, though, was the 김말이국수, which is a famous favorite at Pentaport. Basically, it is noodles with 김 (laver; “nori”) and kimchi in cold 동치미, which is a kind of “water kimchi.” It was so refreshing and energizing! I just wish that we had not waited until the last day to try it! It is pretty much the perfect food for a summertime festival.

The beverages were pretty mediocre, but still enjoyable for their being cold drinks in the sweltering August heat. The highballs were wildly overpriced, but worth it to a point to get a good buzz going. The beer available was basically just Cass, which even for a somewhat snobbish beer drinker like myself was enjoyable after being in the sun all day.

Flags

I always enjoy seeing all the flags people bring into the festival. It’s also fun to see familiar ones from other festivals. Here are some of the one’s I remember from this year:

• 불여우단 등장
• 지속가능한 덕질
• 퇴사
• 통일
• Pride flag
• American flag with Jack White’s face on it
• 락페의 민족
• One guy had a flag with (presumably) his name on it. I can’t remember the name, but we tried to find out who it was by searching on the internet, but couldn’t find anything. Whoever it was seems to have just been reppin’ himself out there.