10 Tips for Ultra Korea

If you’re heading to Olympic Stadium this weekend for Ultra Korea, you’ll want to give our tips a read-through. We’re veterans when it comes to Ultra Korea and Korean festivals in general, so we thought we’d share some wisdom with you.

1. Be prepared to wait in lines.

While waiting in line is normal for almost every festival or large event, it’s still worth the reminder that you’ll need to factor this time into your plans. Between picking up tickets from ‘will call’, dropping off your bags for safe keeping, finishing off outside food and drinks, and waiting for your late friends to get there, you will need quite a bit of extra time. So plan ahead and arrive early enough to get through the whole process before your favorite act takes the stage. Also, if you already have a wristband that was mailed to you, make sure you REGISTER it before JUNE 11TH!

2. Pregame before you enter.

There are several reasons why we suggest you pregame before entering Ultra Korea. First of all, you don’t want to be waiting in line for a drink while your favorite DJ is playing their set. Secondly, you don’t want to be paying an arm and a leg for a warm beer or a cocktail with just a splash of alcohol. Thirdly, you can’t bring outside food/drinks into Ultra Korea, so pregaming will be all you’ve got. Get a nice buzz going before you arrive and hopefully you’ll be able to coast nicely through the festival with an occasional drink. Make sure you don’t hit the bottle too hard beforehand, because you will actually want to remember the weekend.

3. Take a walkthrough when you first enter.

Get a lay of the land when you first arrive. Make mental notes of where the stages, bathrooms, and vendors are located. This will come in handy later when you have to meet friends or get to another stage quickly so you don’t miss your favorite act.

4. Don’t forget the basics like water and sunscreen.

This should go without saying, but we’ll say it anyways. Be smart. Don’t ignore the basic things such as water and sunscreen. Dehydration is never a good thing so drink plenty of water. Also, you don’t want to wake up for Day 2 with a sunburn, so apply sunscreen when needed.

5. Don’t always expect the best atmosphere to be at the main stage.

Bigger is not always better. While the main stage is there for a reason, you’ll often times find that the smaller stages have just as much talent, if not more. The smaller stages typically attract crowds of dedicated fans, so you can expect to be surrounded by people that are there for the music. While it will be incredible to see some of the world’s biggest DJs on the main stage, take some time to expand your tastes by checking out the smaller stages too.

6. Pack light.

You’ll be at the festival for an extended period of time, so the last thing you’ll want to be doing is carrying heavy bags all day and night. To avoid more waiting in line and paying for the festival to keep your bag, try not to bring one at all. In all honesty, you should only need an ID, your wristband (if you received one before the event), and a loaded T Money card. However, you may also want to bring your phone, a compact camera and a portable battery pack for your phone (our next tip).

7. Invest in a portable battery.

If you lose your friends or happen to see your favorite DJ walking around and want a picture, the last thing you want is your phone to be dead. So, carry an extra battery or invest in a portable battery pack for your phone. If you’ve already got one, great. Just don’t forget to bring it with you. You probably won’t need one of the large capacity ones for this event, so find one that is small and can easily fit in your pocket or bag. Also, remember to bring the cable too, of course. On a side note, portable batteries are one of the best gifts for DJs that use one of the newer Macbook models that supports charging via USB-C cables.

8. If you are with a group, designate an area to meet if someone gets lost.

This one is actually very important. The festival is large and there will be a lot of people there. Getting separated from your friends will probably happen at some point and it’s never fun to be wasting time searching the grounds for them. In case calling or texting them doesn’t work or your phone battery dies (this definitely happens), have a place designated to meet up. You can even have your group meet somewhere at the top of every hour to be extra safe.

9. Load your T-MONEY card before entering the festival.

To avoid waiting in the line to buy or charge up your card (if the festival is only accepting T-Money), load it up with some cash at the subway station outside the stadium. We don’t advise you put tons of money on it since it could get lost or stolen, but having some money on it from the beginning will definitely prove useful. Also, try not to let your friends convince you that you will just share a card. If one person has the card and gets separated from the group, you’ll all be suffering.

10. Have a plan.

Take a look at the set times and make sure you know which acts you really want to see. If you plan on having your phone with you, you can use the official 2015 Ultra Korea app to create your own schedule for the event. The app also does some other cool things, so be sure to search for it in the Apple App Store or Google play. If you don’t plan to bring your phone, you can always make a note of the set times and locations you want to be at.

4 thoughts on “10 Tips for Ultra Korea”

  1. This is really helpful, thanks! I was wondering about the T money card though. Can we not use KRW at all?

    • Judging from past festivals and the fact that there are T-Money locations on the Ultra Korea map, we think that this will replace all cash at the event. However, you might be fine with credit/debit cards, but we can’t say 100%. If you don’t have a T-Money card you can buy for cheap all over Korea in convenience stores and subway stations. They should also have them available for purchase at the festival, but you’ll have to wait in line of course. Who knows how long that might be.

    • While there may be water fountains in the stadium complex (we can’t completely recall and most people would refuse to drink from them anyways), most water is purchased from the vendors. So you’ll probably want to make sure you have some money on your card reserved for that!

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