The 42nd annual NYC Korean Parade & Festival took place on Oct. 3.
Photo by Amanda Moses
The 42nd annual NYC Korean Parade & Festival brought autumn cheer to K-Town Saturday, filling the streets with music, cultural activities, food, and Korean pride.
Fresh off last week’s Chuseok celebrations, the mid-autumn harvest festival, the Korean American Association of Greater New York (KAAGNY) kicked off the festivities at 10 a.m. Oct. 3 at 32nd Street and Sixth Avenue.
Passersby were greeted by the aromas of bungeoppang (fish-shaped pastries), kimbap (seaweed rice rolls), bulgogi (marinated beef), and an array of banchan, including kimchi and other Korean side dishes.
Beyond culinary delights, the festival lets visitors experience Korean traditions firsthand. Attendees could shop for hanboks (traditional Korean clothing) and try games such as yutnori (a traditional board game played with wooden sticks), gonggi (similar to jacks), tuho (a game of tossing arrows into a narrow jar), and ddakji (the paper-tile flipping game played in Squid Game).
At the eastern end of 32nd Street, a small stage hosted a full slate of performances throughout the day, including traditional Korean music and dance, K-pop performances, Taekwondo demonstrations, a children’s choir and a Hanbok model contest.
The celebration then spilled into the streets as the parade stepped off near 38th Street and Sixth Avenue from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. BTS classics, including “Dynamite” and “Arirang,” echoed through Midtown as floats and parade participants marched through K-Town.
The daylong festivities culminated at 6 p.m.
