Korean Culture Blooms in Sun : Festival Continues Today

First came a Korean Scout troop, carrying a banner announcing the parade of the ninth annual Korean Festival of Orange County.

Thirty girls followed, all twirling stage swords and dressed in colorful traditional Korean dresses called han boks . Behind them were members of the Elderly Korean Americans of Orange County, the men in white-and-blue farmers’ clothes and banging drums and the women in han boks and performing a scarf dance.

They were the first of 150 groups participating in Saturday’s procession on Garden Grove Boulevard from Brookhurst Way to Magnolia Street.

Despite temperatures in the upper 80s, organizers said, about 100,000 people lined the streets at 3 p.m. to see the glittering floats and costumed marchers.

“It gets bigger and better every year,” Garden Grove Mayor W.E. (Walt) Donovan said.

The best part of the parade, he quipped, was “riding in it.”

Jin O. Kim, president of the Korean Chamber of Commerce, said he also enjoyed riding in an open car on the route but admitted that there was one big problem Saturday.

“It’s hot,” said Kim, wearing his three-piece suit. The chamber organized the three-day festival, along with the Korea Central Daily newspaper.

Behind him, members of the La Quinta High School’s marching band were sweating in their blue-and-gold uniforms. One helpful supporter squirted water into the students’ mouths.

High inland temperatures in Orange County were in the upper 80s, according to WeatherData, which provides forecasts for The Times. Coastal cities were not much cooler, in the low 80s. A lifeguard at Laguna Beach said Saturday’s beach attendance of 25,000 people was the highest since summer began.

“It was one of the most packed days we’ve had all summer,” lifeguard Jeff Gilbert said.

Organizers of the Korean Festival said that as temperatures cooled in the evening, more people were expected to arrive at the fair, which continues today in the Seoul Plaza shopping complex on Garden Grove Boulevard between Brookhurst and Gilbert streets.

Chris Kim, 7, of Huntington Beach said he and his friends were waiting until nighttime to get on the carnival rides because “it’s hot right now.”

Garden Grove’s Hanna Chu, also 7, said the rides are “funner at night, ‘cause of the lights.”

“And you get more dizzy,” added her brother, Nate, 8.

Before the parade, the three were content playing in a pile of sand in the middle of the festival’s open-air market, which included more than 40 booths selling Korean foods, furniture, jewelry and crafts, such as handmade ceramic vases.

The festival will open today at 9 a.m. with a bowling tournament, organizers said. At noon, there will be contests in arm-wrestling and cheki chaki , a Korean outdoor folk game of kicking paper-wrapped coins.

The evening performances will begin at 5 p.m. with a senior citizen talent show, organizers said. At 7 p.m., top-name Korean singers will take the stage.

The festival has helped attract more than 1,000 Korean-owned businesses that have opened along Garden Grove Boulevard, organizers said. The restaurants and shops in turn drew more Korean residents to the county. There are more than 35,000 Korean descendants in the county, according to the 1990 U.S. census.

City officials and Korean business leaders are discussing establishing a Koreatown in Garden Grove similar to communities in Los Angeles and New York.

Los Angeles County ranks first in U.S. residents of Korean heritage, with nearly 145,000, about 73,000 of whom are in Los Angeles alone, according to the Census Bureau. New York City ranks second with 69,718.

There are about 5,700 Korean residents in Garden Grove; nearly 4,600 in Fullerton; close to 4,200 in Anaheim; about 3,660 in Irvine, and more than 2,600 in Buena Park, according to the Census Bureau.

Times staff writer Robert Elston contributed to this story.