Live music venues going out of business one after another amid COVID-19 pandemic

By Park Ji-won

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the loss of numerous live music venues for performing artists, but its impact has been particularly tough for indie musicians centered around Hongik University in western Seoul, also known as Hongdae, the center of Korea's independent music scene.

On Jan. 4, Evans Lounge, a live music venue that had been hosting regular indie rock and jazz concerts in Hongdae since Dec. 5, 2011, closed its doors for good.

A post on Evans Lounge's Instagram account read, "Evans Lounge, which opened on Dec. 5, bids farewell as of Jan. 4. We express our deepest gratitude to the musicians and audiences who brightened our venue. We hope we can meet again at a better time in the future. Happy New Year."

The owner of Evans Lounge was quoted by Yonhap News as saying that the company was forced to pay rent from its deposit money from August and after the implementation of the level 2.5 social distancing measures last year, it was unable to stay afloat.

The shuttering of Evans Lounge followed the closing of a number of live music venues in recent months in Hongdae, such as MUV Hall, amid a burgeoning deficit. V-Hall, the successor to concert hall Ghost Theater founded by legendary rocker and composer Shin Hae-chul in 2007, closed in November last year. Queen Live Hall has also shut down, as well as DGBD which had been founded in 2004 by the owners of legendary Hongdae venues Drug and Blue Devil.

A busy street near Hongik University in western Seoul, host to many clubs, is seen in this Nov. 13 file photo. Korea Times photo by Kim Young-hoon

Venues in other parts of the city are affected too. Once In a Blue Moon, a jazz club in Cheongdam-dong, a posh district in southern Seoul, also closed Nov. 14 after 22 years. The jazz club opened in 1998 enjoyed popularity amid diversifying music preferences in Korea. GBN Live House, a venue for extreme metal and punk in the metalworking district of Mullae-dong in southwestern Seoul, announced its closure on Nov. 26.

The number of concerts canceled between February and December last year numbered 416, at a cost of 2 billion won ($1.8 million), according to the Record Label Industry Association of Korea.

Insiders worry about the closure of the live music venues because it not only means losing a source of income, but also opportunities to promote hidden artists.

"The Hongdae indie scene has been serving as an incubator for the entire music industry. It gave chances for indie musicians to perform and get used to performing, which later becomes a source of confidence and allows them to become bigger musicians in the future. Famous musicians such as Hyukoh and BOL4 used to perform in Hongdae when they debuted and became more popular after that," an organizer of musical events said.

Insiders point out that the government's social distancing guidelines have aggravated the situation and called for the easing of rules to save the music scene.

"Under the current Level 2.5 distancing rules, venues for performing arts such as plays and musicals, as well as movie theaters must leave two seats empty after every occupied seat. But live music venues with standing room only, which make up most indie concert halls, must shut down. It is not fair … We hope that the government will ease guidelines for those venues to help the indie music scene," an indie musician said.

Site Map E-paper Subscribe Register LogIn
Site Map E-paper Subscribe Register LogIn