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Waving the Korean flag at Reading Festival 07

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FireBlast! United Kingdom5251 Posts September 02 2007 00:00 GMT #1 Last weekend I went to the Reading Festival, which was inevitably a kick-ass 5 days of sleepless getting drunk, high, seeing the Smashing Pumpkins, RHCP and so much more. However the utter highlight for me was this one magical moment where during the final night Nine Inch Nails (who stole the show) were the penultimate act, before the Smashing Pumpkins. For their encore they played the anthemic Hurt, during which I sensed it was time to bomb myself in front of the crowd to catch the Pumpkins from front row. From the previous night when I caught the Chili's I saw a Korean flag right in the middle of the crowd, and thought "wow". The same flag was there for the final night too and as I was making my way to the front I thought I should check out whoever is waving the taeguk flag of my proud nation. It happened to be an eclectic group of three Koreans, who were surprised to see my hand clasp their shoulder and hear "sugohasehyo" ("keep it up") and as the entire crowd sang their hearts out with NiN, I stood there with the Korean flag, which is clearly visible during the second half of the video when they show the crowd. I welled up and shed a few tears. Sheer magic.

Pressure 7326 Posts September 02 2007 00:14 GMT #2 :D pride

Physician United States4146 Posts September 02 2007 01:00 GMT #3 wrong title, it should have been "food for the heart" considering the overindulgent emotional moment; to make the connection with the collective you needed the influence of the crowd, the music and the presence of one of the cultures that makes you... in my own experience such moments are scarce and will not happen too often, in fact such moments are usually relegated straight into nostalgia. There is a little part in you that made the journey from stranger in a strange land, to one more in the sea of humanity...

Last Romantic United States20661 Posts September 02 2007 01:27 GMT #4 Awesome. I get that feeling when I see someone with the Taiwanese flag. I sort of want to wave one around at Beijing '08, but I'd probably get myself shot.

intrigue Washington, D.C9934 Posts September 02 2007 01:57 GMT #5 you GOt tO see the PumpkIngSS Oh ym goDDD oh my god oh ym goddd ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Shymon United States620 Posts September 02 2007 02:35 GMT #6 that was one kick ass performance of hurt.

DeadVessel United States6269 Posts September 02 2007 04:59 GMT #7 Cool FB

oshibori_probe United States2934 Posts September 02 2007 05:07 GMT #8 I saw the title and thought it was a book fair.

knyttym United States5797 Posts September 02 2007 05:10 GMT #9 On September 02 2007 14:07 oshibori_probe wrote: I saw the title and thought it was a book fair. ya me 2. I was like why the hell would you get drunk reading books?

alffla Hong Kong20321 Posts September 02 2007 13:21 GMT #10 omggg reading i would've loved it if i could go haha. im in uni @ leeds but i went back to hong kong for the summer ~_~ maybe one summer i'll go to leeds fest hehe anyway... nice one!

KwarK United States43677 Posts September 02 2007 15:46 GMT #11 I couldn't afford to go this year. Most my friends went And I'm sorry to say that I really, really prefer the Johnny Cash cover. Even so, Reading is fantastic, no? See you there next year.

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