Zandari Festa reveals 1st lineup for 2019

Music lovers crowd Yes24 MUV Hall for a showcase performance by former Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock at last year's Zandari Festa. / Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

By Jon Dunbar

Zandari Festa announced the

of Korean and foreign musicians for this year's event. Korea's answer to Austin's South by Southwest, this multi-venue music showcase has brought a countless number of domestic and international performances to the nightlife area around Hongik University in western Seoul every year since 2012.

This year's event takes place Sept. 26 to 29, under the slogan “Listen to music, drink beer, make friends,” bringing together musicians, music lovers and music industry professionals.

Along with the gigs, the schedule is packed with secret events, networking opportunities, and workshops. There's also a full-on music industry conference, as the musicians as well as the delegates representing music festivals and record labels are here to do business and make deals.

The first lineup announcement lists 30 local acts and 20 more from overseas, representing 14 countries. Of those, five ―

and

― come from Japan, showing that the music scene isn't beholden to difficulties in international relations.

The international acts also include Taiwan's

, Lithuanian alt-rock/indie/punk/electronic band

, Philippine indie-soul-folk-pop-acoustic singer-songwriter

, Hungarian jungle rock/tropical garage band

, Mongolian deathcore band

, U.K. punk bands

, Swedish alternative synth band

, French rock band

, Singaporean indie-pop band

, Thai post-hardcore band

, Indonesia's

, Swiss experimental-avant-psych-minimal-rock band

and Chinese feminist indie electronic band

“Guess whaaaaat!” Clara Benin posted online last Thursday. “I'm going to Seoul (South Korea) for the first time to play in Zandari Festa this September 25-29! So excited for this.”

“SOME OF OUR MOST EXCITING NEWS EVER... We're off to South Korea in September for this year's Zandari Festa,” IDestroy said in a Facebook post, last Wednesday. “We're absolutely thrilled with this opportunity and are so unbelievably excited to be playing our first show outside of Europe.”

Meanwhile, the Korean acts include electro-rockers

, Daegu skatepunk band

, melodic punk band

and a teamup by rapper

and alternative blues rock band

The three members of Daegu skatepunk band Drinking Boys and Girls Choir sit for an interview with The Korea Times on the roof of Club Steel Face, at last year's Zandari Festa. / Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

Named after a historic name for the Hongdae area, Zandari Festa is set to restore the indie music spirit to the area for one weekend in late September. Zandari means “small bridge,” and its presence is still marked in local neighborhoods Seogyo-dong and Donggyo-dong, signifying the west and east sides of a stream that used to run through the area. Just like the stream, now relocated underground, Hongdae's music scene has been disappearing as musicians disperse throughout the city and nation and their former stomping grounds face gentrification.

This year's event poster seems to acknowledge the changing culture, depicting playground equipment now removed from Hongdae Park, a man selling makgeolli from a cart and spiky-haired punks, all once familiar sights in the neighborhood. But now they are joined by a baby holding a beer bottle and sitting in its own filth, perhaps representing the new generation, and an excavator waiting ominously in the background.