HBC Festival celebrates belated 15th anniversary

Lance Reegan-Diehl / Courtesy of Lance Reegan-Diehl

By Jon Dunbar

Hae Bang Chon (HBC) Music Festival could have marked its 15th year earlier, but we all know what got in the way for the last couple years.

Lance Reegan-Diehl, who cofounded HBC Fest in 2006 with Jim Gaynor, came out of the woodwork last month to announce the resumption of the biannual festival, which had its most recent run in October 2019.

It will take place over three days from Friday to Sunday, spread out through Seoul's Haebangchon and Gyeongnidan neighborhoods at nine venues. Saturday will be the main day, and Reegan-Diehl emphasized to The Korea Times that the police have given their permission and will be controlling traffic in the area.

The festival is known for offering a wide selection of mainly solo singer-songwriter performances at participating bars and restaurants that can host live acts. At its peak, it involved over 100 individual acts. This year's event showcases about 55 performances.

EARL, left, performs at Revolucion in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, Sept. 17. He will close the night at Phillies on Saturday. / Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

Early on in its history, musicians performed closer to the streetside, but regulations have pushed such performances further away from the curb, over concerns about traffic and noise disruptions. But in more recent years, the festival has also been able to offer bigger, louder bands in basement venues, such as Phillies Basement and The Studio HBC. Likewise, this latest HBC Fest will offer a healthy mix of acoustic solo acts and electrified ensembles.

One of the weirder acts HBC Fest has seen was Watermelon Man, an Australian who "performed semi-naked and painted in blue and red dye, smashing watermelons on his head in the middle of the road," according to former Korea Times editor and writer John Redmond, who was said to have played a role in every HBC Fest since the start.

John Redmond, a longtime expat musician and Korea Times contributing writer who passed away in May 2018, was said to have been involved in every HBC Fest since 2006. / Courtesy of HBC Festival

Reegan-Diehl first came to HBC in 1999, back when it was a much different place, with lower rents than now and only a couple of restaurants up and down Sinheung-ro, the main drag.

He claimed that around 2001 or 2002, the then-small community of local expat residents including him began referring to the area as HBC, and the initialism stuck once it became associated with the biannual festival.

Lance Reegan-Diehl, left, and Tom Daly perform at Hair of the Dog during HBC Festival on May 25, 2019. Daly will perform with his band B3 in Phillies Basement on Friday. / Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

Reegan-Diehl, a professional musician who played guitar for K-pop star BoA for two years in the early 2000s, actually took out a copyright on the names, HBC Fest and HBC Art Village, in time for the 10th anniversary a little over five years ago, although he added that he doesn't believe this extends to a copyright of the name HBC itself.

HBC Fest had its first event on July 8, 2006, during summer which may come as a surprise to those who have come to expect it every spring and fall, usually in May and October.

Other than the unpleasantly hot weather, Reegan-Diehl admitted that the summer HBC Fest suffered from a lack of regulars during summer vacation. "All the teachers went on vacation in summer," he said. "We had more musicians in spring and fall… one big party before they leave, one big party when they return."

The poster for the 2006 Hae Bang Chon Summer Fest / Courtesy of Lance Reegan-Diehl

This first event featured 29 acts at three venues, a small amount compared to the more recent editions.

Right from the start, HBC Fest presented logistical challenges to the neighborhood, which had originally formed as a settlement of refugees and returnees from North Korea after Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial occupation.

"In 2006, there were issues right away. Police came but, more in a noise/foreigner gathering sense," Reegan-Diehl said. "As it grew, it continued to balloon out in the streets. As it became an issue, complaints grew."

According to the September 2011 issue of Groove Magazine, the spring 2010 HBC Fest received 1,400 noise complaints. "For a while, standing outside Phillies put one in danger of a water balloon attack from an angry rooftop ajumma," the long-running monthly expat magazine claimed.

Geoffrey Lewis, left, who will play HBC Fest at Hair of the Dog on Saturday, poses outside Phillies during Block Party, Sept. 24. / Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

The complications peaked in 2011, when HBC Fest was almost canceled permanently. "The riot police came because I had 5,000 people on the loose," Reegan-Diehl said. "In 2013 I made friends with the police chief at the time, and we were able to work out a system to handle and control the event as not to impede traffic."

Since then, the police have been a regular presence during HBC Fests, lining Sinheung-ro to keep traffic running smoothly and pedestrians safe.

A woman joins the police line at HBC Festival in 2014. / Courtesy of HBC Festival

HBC Fest also developed along with the neighborhood, and may have even spurred various developments there. In 2018, sidewalks were put in along both sides of the narrow two-lane alley, helping separate pedestrians and traffic all year round, but especially during the fest.

The relocation of U.S. Army Garrison (USAG) Yongsan has also had a profound effect on HBC Fest. As U.S. military personnel were moving south to USAG Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, many HBC and Itaewon local businesses migrated with them. Reegan-Diehl first experimented with moving the festival south to Anjeong-ri, the community outside Humphreys' main gates, on June 16, 2018.

He kept the festival running in HBC right up until the pandemic. He continues to run Deeleebob Music, a recording studio and practice space located in the neighborhood. During the pandemic, he worked for metal musicians Thor and Neil Turbin.

Sirius Hunter Lee of Incestrul Lust, who will play HBC Fest at Phillies Basement on Saturday, poses outside Phillies during Block Party, Sept. 24. / Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

In the three years since the last HBC Fest, the neighborhood has changed. Gentrification has waxed and waned, while venues have come and gone.

Entry to all venues for HBC Fest is free. Visit hbcfest.com to see a full schedule.