Platoon Kunsthalle Night Flea Market
Night Flea Market KICK ASS KOREA reason 5
As you approach the first thing you notice is the flicker of strobe lights splashed on the buildings. Then, as you come closer, the rumble of hip hop beats grows. Nearby, passerby on their own evening adventure slow, heads rubbernecking to see what’s going on while others outright stop and gawk, staring at the buzzed heads, hair dyed, twisted or locked; the eighties retro look side by side with the punked-out wall street ensemble and the tom boy in combat boots with the Caesar cut; the tats creeping up necks, down arms and up bare legs in a flow of ink.
Disconnect.
These aren’t the typical cookie cutter fashion plates seen on the streets of Gangnam. Then you hear the voice; the staccato bark of Korean rhymes piercing the din of night traffic. The hodgepodge parade of urban fairies converges upon a jigsaw building. Inside the emcee, lost in an oversized T-shirt, struts across a platform. Like the archetypal Pied Piper his rap draws in the square pegs and odd ducks to the one place they ought to be.
It’s the first Saturday of the month and the night flea market has come to Platoon Kunsthalle. The excitement is a physical thing, alive and wriggling. Electric eel energy zips through the crowd. People weave around the makeshift stalls sectioning the floor (rectangles scrawled in chalk) piled high with a multitude of stuff people want to barter, sell, or trade. Faded denim, skirts, saris, tube socks, DVDs, CDs, leather jackets, paintings, jewelry, watches, coats, and everything else in-between as if everything in your grandparents stuffy old attic has been dragged out for the world to prod, poke, and rummage through in order to find that hidden gem worth saving.
The market continues up into the upper levels of Kunsthalle. There every inch of space is utilized whether its more stalls or just people hanging out, heads bobbing to the music, or kicking back over a beer, brat in hand from the grills fired up on the ground floor. The night market is more than that Wall E T-shirt for sale or the bangle to be haggled over, it’s about the people, the community; coming together to do something fun, productive and inclusive. And from all the wide smiles, fresh faces and bulging bags slung over shoulders it accomplishes all that and more.
To sign up to be a seller you just have to apply at The Bling or Kunsthalle. The fee is 10,000 KRW. Check out The Video Below!
Directions: Hakdong Station Exit 10 Walk straight to the first major intersection Turn left Walk straight until you come to the Doosan Building on your right, cross the street and Platoon Kunsthalle is around the corner.
Operating Hours Mon-Sat 11am – 1am
Phone: 02-3447-1191
Address Gangnam-Gu, Nonhyeon-dong 97-22, Seoul
