HBC Festival

There once was a time back in the late 1990’s when the street known as Yongsan-2ga was a simple residential area, with expats and military personnel housed in the apartments and villas along with locals and people from all around the world. Besides the last-night karaoke bars, the first signs of night-life appeared in 1998, when Phillies pub and the dive shop were born. What began as a cottage ind

ustry selling cheese steaks from a home kitchen, became a shop with cheese steak deliveries. The owner also was a trained scuba diver and he took students on diving trips. Phillies also doubled as a PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) dive shop. Phillies became more and more the local pub in the Yongsan-2ga area. The area, known by locals as, Haebangchon. Which means: “freedom village.” Phillies itself endured as a famous pub. However, it has gone through many turbulent times with the pub changing owners over the years. Some of the first live music performances at this pub were done by me, the writer of this article as I would play for the then owner on Sunday’s, sometimes for my friends, and it would be paid-by-passing-around-the-hat kind of deal. This was from 2000 to 2002. I later started my regular club dates and K-Pop session work around 2002. I worked for a young singer called BOA and the entertainment company, SM Entertainment. I had little time for the “friendly” shows at the local pub. The live music tradition continued, at Phillies. And around that time a bar known as Orange Tree appeared in 2004 and another one called Ssen bar. There were now three bars in the HBC area, known for some live music. It was against this backdrop that in the fall of 2005 Jim Gaynor and I were in my apartment in Haebangchon and we came up with the idea of neighborhood festival. The history of the festival is known to many. It first took place on July 8th 2006 with three bars, Orange Tree, the now extinct Ssen Bar (Living Room), and Phillies. Jim Gaynor, a regular figure around the neighborhood at that time, and founder Lance Reegan-Diehl, came together and put the festival in motion. I had all the music gear to make it happen, and the three bar owners were willing to support the idea. It was to be called the Haebangchon Summer Fest, and it involved the three bars, and 29 acts that were enthusiastic playing their music there. It was all day on July 8th Saturday starting at 2pm and it went off like a rocket. Jim Gaynor left for Japan in 2008. Founder Lance Reegan-Diehl, has run the Hae Bang Chon Music Festival ever since. The place was full of people and musicians, and everyone was in a party mood. It was like something new had happened in the sleepy town, and the name HBC, that everyone uses for the area today, was born. Not like anything in Korea or in any large city for that matter. There was a lot of controversy and much criticism about the fest. There were questions about its legitimate or where the funding came from. To be clear, once and for all, that it was always a grass roots movement and it was funded by the owners that support live music. All the musicians volunteer to perform at the festival and; DEELEEBOB is the corporation and registered event organizer. Music is performed by people from all over the world. Anyone who has a musical act can sign up to perform, and he or she is welcomed by so many other people doing the same thing. Some say this is where professional acts meet amateur acts. These is also how the 14 restaurant/club owners and one music company owner have put the HBC area on the map, and continue to do so. HBC, it seems, has a history of foreigners contributing to building HBC dating back to the late 1950s. It is known as the neighborhood, for those who returned after liberation but lost their hometowns. And it now seems foreigners once again are showing HBC into the future by paving the way for a new generation of HBC inhabitants. The HBC Fest has seen it all; rock, punk, hip-hop, folk music, poetry, Shakespearean drama, comedy, and even a large balding man painted head to toe in green, smashing watermelons over his head. All of these have come in varying degrees of quality, but they’ve been there. In the September 2012 issue of Groove Magazine, Lance Reegan-Diehl, guitarist and HBC Fest owner did an interview for a feature on the upcoming October HBC Fest. The article was designed to both explain much about the festival’s past, and to promote the upcoming October festival. Following the massive crowds which had filled the neighborhood the previous May, the festival had clearly taken the jump from obscure underground music festival to an almost riotous expat music event known nationwide. The festival now regularly attracts musical acts from places like Busan, Gangneung, Incheon and Daegu to name a few. More and more local businesses are vying to join as venues, and the fest has had to turn away musical acts. And venue owners have had to turn some customers away acts as they sometimes can’t accommodate the large number of willing participants. Never before has the festival received so much publicity. All major monthly expat magazines, newspapers, and websites feature the HBC festival. On top of this, the festival’s reputation has been grown so that people now come to get together and socialize in the streets, with all under the banner of a music festival designed with expats in mind. The tenth year anniversary festival in May 2015 was a watershed moment in the history of the HBC Fest. The increasingly popular indie music festival in Yongsan’s semi-famous neighborhood attracted massive crowds of revelers, possibly the largest ever, for the one night only onslaught on the resources of the single street. Over the years, the festival has moved out of the bars and onto the streets. Previously reluctant business owners have embraced the festival. And even if they don’t become a venue or directly support it, they will still put up a poster and assist in what way they can. The carnival atmosphere that is created happens inside the live venues and bars is what drives the show. As people move from venue to venue and show to show, they find their way into the many stops available in HBC. The first two or three festivals were shaky to say the least. Craig Branch, a drummer who has played in practically every festival save for the first one, recalled his first gig in Ssen. “We were scheduled to play first at Ssen, and we played to a girlfriend (of one of the band members), two totally disinterested bar staff, and a Russian girl propping up the bar. It was memorable for being, well, bloody cold, damp, dark and a bit shady” he explained. But more than that, the festival has enlivened the expat music scene and presented new opportunities. “I think it's brought the live music scene to a whole lot of people who may not have known any of the performers. I think it's livened up the scene quite a bit. Perhaps it's even inspired people to put together a band, or just to jump up on a stage somewhere and do a solo act”, explained Steve Koons, another HBC Fest veteran with the always interesting Kimchee Cowboys. Over the years, the organizers have steadied the ship and learned from their mistakes. Despite this, the one issue that has never fully been resolved is how to deal with the increasing number of people arriving in Haebangchon’s narrow street. It still is an indie festival with limited its resources. The way the festival is designed limits the development of what many people have been calling for over the years, that is, to close off the street and host a full-on festival. The survival of the HBC Festival and the music is hinges on that. The musicians want to play, and if everyone has to stay inside the bars to, play the music and enjoy the venues that support the festival, then that is what it will be. Any balcony use, or street side vending is forbidden on fest day. And I guess it’s just a way to do whatever ‘they’ can to keep putting the local, expat festival down. Music itself finds a way, and the host of musicians and artists that gather two times per year in Haebangchon don’t know about borders, and politics. They don’t care what country each member or player is from. They are from Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, England, the Philippines, Korea, France, Italy, Germany, Russia, Japan, this list goes on and on. Svenson from Germany (www.sevensonguitar.com) has played at the HBC Festival, Andrea Quartarone (www.andreaquartarone.com) has performed at the HBC Festival, along with returning guest Kenji Onizuka from the LRD Band from Tokyo, Japan. International interest in this HBC festival has gone up and down, but HBC Fest has always worked to be a true international ‘folk’ styled festival. I wonder where this local folk festival will go from here, and what more it can do? Itaewon seems to be closing almost all of the smaller local businesses, and city funding is focused on the Itaewon area. Due to the nature of the narrow streets in HBC, the fact is that expansion will be delayed for a long time as the streets and property lines cannot be moved. HBC will probably remain as quiet and restrained as it is right now, with a few new things moving in and out of the area and owners a mix of expats and Koreans. They like the way HBC or Haebangchon or Yongsan-2ga, or Siheung-ro is –whatever the address may say. The names may change but Haebangchon, was started by refugees and expats, and it still is created and run by the same kind of people.