New York's annual Korean harvest festival — one of the largest in the United States — will be held for the first time in Bergen County this weekend.
But the two-day festival's move across the river is not being welcomed by members of the Korean American Association of New Jersey. They say the upcoming event led fewer people to attend their 10th annual local celebration of Chusok, a harvest festival they organized this past weekend at Overpeck County Park in Ridgefield.
Kun Y. Lee, past president of the Fort Lee-based group, said only about half of the more than 20,000 people who attended last year's event showed up this year to the annual Jersey event.
More than half of the vendors who had registered for a spot backed out when they heard that the New York festival would be coming. He said the non-profit group estimates they may have lost more than $50,000.
"It shouldn't be here in New Jersey, and prior to them announcing that it was coming here they should have contacted us," Lee said. "We could have avoided our difficulties."
The New York organizers said they were forced to relocate to Overpeck Park after they ran into issues obtaining a permit. John Kim, director of the Korean Produce Association of New York, which organizes the annual event, said Bergen County's proximity to New York City and its large Korean community made it an ideal backup location.
The festival starts Saturday and offers food, performances, and a concert featuring well-known Korean pop music artists who are expected to draw tens of thousands.
Ron Kistner, Bergen County's acting director of parks and recreation, said organizers approached him last month about holding the event, and he didn't see a problem, since it was a week after the local Korean festival.
"I hope this is the first of many, and that we do this for many years to come," Kistner said.
But Lee and Blue Kang, the director of last weekend's festival, say they plan to circulate a petition and hand it to county officials asking that they not allow the New York festival to come back.
Kistner said he plans to meet with members of the New Jersey group in coming weeks to talk about the festivals.
"I will discuss it with them," he said, noting that last weekend's rainy weather also contributed to the lower attendance. "Maybe the two groups will get together next year."
Lee and Kang said that the two organizations are different and don't have the same mission. They added that when representatives of the Korean Produce Association approached them about merging events, it was too late.
"We were told Sept. 9, and we had no time to talk or discuss merging," Kang said. "Hopefully, this year's event is done, and hopefully next year this won't happen again," he added.
The Korean Produce Association of New York has organized the harvest festival since 1982 and has always held it across the river. This year, besides celebrating the harvest, the event will mark the 20th anniversary of South Korea's membership to the United Nations.
Last year, the festival was held for the first time on Randall's Island after having previously been held in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Organizers hoped to hold the concert in Randall's Island again this year, even posting information on websites about the festival being held there, but when they sought a permit they ran into obstacles.
Phil Abramson, parks spokesman, said New York City officials asked organizers to reduce the size of the event after they learned that the festival would feature several K-Pop music acts through their sponsorship with the Korean Broadcasting System and there was a potential for the event to draw approximately 40,000 people each day.
"We advised the organizers that there was not enough time to make such accommodations in such a short period of time and suggested that the event be scaled down to its scope of prior years," Abramson wrote in an email. "We subsequently learned that they found an alternative location for this event in New Jersey."
Kistner said he didn't know why the group had decided against holding the event in New York, but said that attendance numbers have been discussed, and that the Bergen County Police Department will be a presence at the festival and Sunday night's concert.
The organizers will also have their own security staff on site, and have agreed to limit the number of people allowed to attend the concert to 25,000, he said.
The event is expected to draw people from the tri-state area and beyond, because of its outdoor K-Pop music concert, which will be held on Sunday evening and feature more music artists from South Korea. The concert will also include a performance by The Village People.
Construction workers have already begun to erect the stage for the concert, and a few lucky fans have already secured tickets.
In North Jersey, free tickets were distributed on Sunday at Korean supermarkets in Ridgefield, Bergenfield and Englewood, with employees reporting that young and older residents stood on line for hours. They said the tickets were doled out in less than half hour in some cases.
"All out in 20 minutes," said Eun Han, manager of the Han Yang Mart in Bergenfield, which distributed 400 tickets.
The K-Pop music genre has grown in popularity in Asia, Europe, and more recently the United States. In August, for instance, Billboard began running a K-Pop Hot 100 chart.
The "high-energy, upbeat, and flashy" music genre has its roots in South Korea, and is described as a mix of hip-hop, pop, and R&B music.
The soloists and bands scheduled to sing at Sunday's concert are among the more popular ones in Asia.
Tina Baek, 16, a Paramus High School student, will be attending the concert with her friends. Baek said she's been listening to the music since she was a baby, but now many of her non-Asian friends have been listening and singing along to some of the tunes.
"It's really rare to go to a K-Pop concert and it's free and you get to see the really popular stars,'' she said. "It's hard to express how happy I am."
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E-mail: alvarado@northjersey.com
