I’m a huge fan of traditional Korean music. I have been ever since I stumbled upon a folk music festival at Olympic Park in Seoul in October 2006 during my first couple months of living in Korea. I’ll never forget that experience. I remember hearing the banging of drums and clamoring of metal off in the distance. The noise grew louder and louder until a group of about 20 pungmul (풍물) performers appeared in the middle of the festival grounds where they danced in formations, jumped around in the air, and spun ribbons around their heads all the while playing some intense music.

Visitors purchase tickets in the theater lobby

Living in Korea offers residents many opportunities to experience the thrill of such discoveries. But if you are just passing through with limited time and want to see a performance of traditional Korean music, you’ll have to find one of the regular performances that are put on in all the major cities. By far, the two most popular in Seoul are Chongdong Theater and Kim Deok-su’s PAN. A third, less well known but many times more enjoyable, is the Seoul Nori Madang. And there are still others in Seoul including Pungnyu Hanmadang and Korea House.

For this article, I’m going to briefly compare my experience at Kim Deok-su’s PAN with other experiences. If you want to read a much more professionally written article, I refer you to Gregory Curley’s piece which was written for SEOUL Magazine (Page 39-40). Having been to Chongdong Theater three times, and Seoul Nori Madang numerous times before going to Kim Deok-su’s PAN, I’ll compare PAN to these venues.

A visitor passes time before the show starts

The Seoul Nori Madang beats both Chongdong Theater and PAN in a number of ways. First, it’s free. Second, a performance is scheduled for every Sunday afternoon from Spring to Fall. Third, there’s a huge variety of performance types that you can see performed by groups that visit from all over the country. The only real drawbacks are that there are no performances in the winter (it’s an outdoor theater), and unlike Chongdong Theater and PAN, you don’t know exactly what kind of performance you’ll be seeing.

Chongdong Theater and PAN are very similar, yet are different. Both cost the same amount of money to see. Both are standardized performances. Except for when there is a major overhaul, the show you see today, will be the same show shown tomorrow. Also, both are small indoor venues with cozy atmospheres. The differences lie in the type of a couple of their performances.

Visitors can take photos with the performers after the show

While Kim Deok-su is the founder of samulnori (사물놀이) and creator of PAN, he doesn’t appear onstage. If he did, that would be better than awesome. I own and love a two disc set called Kim Deok-su Samulnori (김덕수 사물놀이). If you like this genre of music I highly recommend it.

Despite my respect for Kim Deok-su’s work, if I had to choose between going to Chongdong Theater or seeing PAN, I would choose Chongdong Theater. While I enjoyed PAN, I feel that the overall quality of the performances were better at Chongdong Theater.

Sitting at my desk and looking back, if traditional forms of music get you excited like they do me, you will enjoy Kim Deok-su’s PAN. And while I can recommend PAN, I definitely think Chongdong Theater edges it out in terms of overall quality. If you are in Seoul during Spring, Summer, or Fall, you gotta check out the (Free) Seoul Nori Madang for what I think is the best of what Seoul offers in the area of traditional Korean music performances.

Resources
Kim Deok-su’s PAN (Korea Tourism Organization)
Chongdong Theater (Korea Tourism Organization)
Chongdong Theater Travel Highlights (Korea Tourism Organization)
Chongdong Theater (Official)
Music of Korea (Wikipedia)
Pungmul (Wikipedia)
Pungnyu Hanmadang (Free) Performances (Korea Tourism Organization)
Korea House Performances (Official)