Midsummer night's scream

A capacity crowd enjoys the inaugural Ultra Korea electronic and dance music festival at the Olympic Stadium Complex in southern Seoul last year. Organizers are expecting that this year’s two-day run on Friday and Saturday will garner about 100,000 visitors, more than last year’s 80,000. / Courtesy of UC Korea

Annual DJ fest Ultra Korea prepares for electric two-day run on Friday, Saturday

Shut Da Mouth

By Baek Byung-yeul

The Ultra Music Festival, one of the world’s biggest outdoor dance music festivals, returns to Korea this week, bringing together some of the coolest DJs around the world.

The second annual Ultra Korea, which takes place Friday and Saturday at Olympic Park in southern Seoul, will feature 60 notable names in the electronic and dance music scene, highlighted by the return appearance of Carl Cox and arrival of Dutch master Armin van Buuren.

Other high-profile DJs include Avicii, Afrojack, Tommy Trash, Kaskade, Sander van Doorn, Boy George DJ Set, Riot Gear, Taku Takahashi, Shinichi Osawa and Krewella.

Last year’s event took place in August, but organizers moved the festival to June to avoid the hottest stretch of the notorious Korean summer.

Armin van Buuren

The Ultra Music Festival began in 1999 in Miami and has been held there every March since then. It was named as the “Best Music Event” in the International Dance Music Awards (IDMA) every year from 2005 to 2011, its status rivaled only by a few events like Barcelona’s Sonar Festival and Detroit’s Movement Festival.

To mark its 15th anniversary, this year’s Ultra Miami continued for two weeks, becoming the longest outdoor electronic and dance music event ever to be held. The festival has been broadening its stages, with its newly added venues including Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Croatia and Korea. The first Ultra Korea last year, which featured Carl Cox alongside Tiesto, Skrillex and Steve Aoki among other DJs, exceeded expectations by drawing more than 80,000 visitors.

“More than 30 percent of the tickets last year were sold to foreign travelers, mostly tourists from other Asian countries like China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan. This shows that the Ultra Music Festival is an internationally anticipated event in virtually every corner of the globe,” said an official from Ultra Korea 2013’s organizing committee.

“We had expected that getting 50,000 visitors last year would be an achievement and we ended up getting significantly more. For this year, we are targeting 100,000 visitors for the two days.”

Carl Cox

Three large stages will be installed at the Olympic Main Stadium, the Subsidiary Stadium and the parking lot of the Olympic Stadium Complex to accomodate to a big crowd, organizers said.

Among the DJs booked for this year’s event, van Buuren appears to be generating the most buzz. He was named as the world’s best DJ for 2012 in the annual top-100 list published by DJ Mag. His two-hour-long weekly radio show, “A State of Trance,” is streamed online to 26 different countries and garners about 20 million listeners a week.

The Amsterdam-based DJ has performed at some of the world’s biggest music events. He most famously spun the beats at a massive celebration at the city’s Museumplein square in 2010, where a crowd of 200,000 welcomed home the Dutch football team, the runner-ups of that year’s World Cup.

In Korea, van Buuren will perform as the headliner in Friday’s opening stage.

Avicii, a 23-year-old DJ whose real name is Tim Berglin, will show his skills on Saturday. The Stockholm-based DJ is an up-and-coming name in the scene, finishing third on DJ Mag’s ranking last year. He has mixed and produced house music since the age of 8 and is credited for hits like “Bromance,” “My Feelings For You” and “Street Dancer.”

Carl Cox, the British DJ and record producer, will perform both on Friday and Saturday. The 51-year-old veteran in recent years has established two record labels and is frequently seen at dance music events around the world.

The most notable Korean act at the event will be the popular DJ duo Shut Da Mouth, compromised of DJ Beejay and DJ Mindbender, slated to perform Saturday. Veterans in the local scene, the Shut Da Mouth teammates have been beginning to get international recognition, appearing at this year’s Ultra Miami.

DJ KOO will perform on Friday when comedian Park Myung-soo will also test his spinning skills under the nickname G-Park.

Other Korean performers include DJ Massive Ditto, DJ Moriaty, DJ Ahn, DJ Unjin and the rock band YB.

Japanese singer Ayumi Hamasaki will host the event on Friday. The 34-year-old singer is an iconic figure in Japan, where she has sold over 50 million records. Saturday’s VVIP host has not been announced yet.

Tickets for the event are being sold online, with a one-day pass costing 110,000 won and a two-day pass 160,000 won. VIP and VVIP tickets, which provide tables for six to eight people with food and drinks, costing three to five million won, have already been sold out.

There will be a limited number of tickets sold onsite. People under the age of 19 will not be allowed to attend the festival.

As the food booths will be prepared inside the concert venue, food and drinks purchased outside are not allowed to be carried in. Also, use of camera, audio and video equipment will be prohibited.

Since there is always chronic congestion in traffic around this area, the organizers encourages using public transportation. The venue is located near exit 6 and 7 of Sports Complex Station, subway line 2. For those coming directly from Incheon International Airport, take the airport limousine bus no. 6000 or 6006. It takes approximately 90 minutes to arrive at the venue.

For more official announcements, artist additions and more information, visit the official web page at www.umfkorea.com.