Creative Ageing festival visit

After a gorgeous morning spent exploring  the grounds of the Gyeongbokgung Palace with Susan Langford (Magic Me) Emma Robinson (Age Cymru) and Carol Rodgers (National Museums Liverpool) we were taken to the Cheongchun Festival.  

It was a hive of activity - the Festival was the culmination of work created by groups of older people who visit Senior Welfare Centres working with teaching artists (musicians/theatre makers/visual artists) all of which was state funded..  There were some fantastic costumes on display and a great sense of celebration in the hall.  Some surreal theatre - led by a Johnny Depp look alike Grim Reaper - the show seemed to be a mixture of Waiting for Godot and a pantomime.  I only wish I could have understood Korean in order to get the jokes.  

My favourite moment came when the large choir started dancing on stage and then spilled over into the audience to continue the party.  As we were in the second row we were soon being pulled to our feet.  I always dread audience participation but once I'm up I always love it!      

We returned to the hotel for an introduction to the British Council in Korea and how Creative Ageing is an important topic as Korea is one of the fastest Ageing OECD counties,  with 13.2% of the country aged over 65 and 21.7 % of the population aged 50-64.   The term No-in means  'one who has aged and become old' and is also interchanged with negeuni which has negative conitations - signifying  loss of strength and has critical overtones.  There is an understanding that to change this, seniors could become cultural creatives.