Gwangju opening show may become another K-pop concert

By Nam Hyun-woo

The opening ceremony of the Gwangju Universiade will likely be a rehash of that of last year’s Incheon Asian Games, which was criticized for being more of a K-pop concert than a celebration of international sports.

With 30 days remaining before the Student Games kick off, the directors and the organizers of the opening and closing ceremonies Wednesday unveiled part of the cast, which features a number of hallyu (Korean wave) singers and actors.

“Since the Universiade is a festival for youth, it is impossible to stage a show without K-pop stars,” Park Myung-sung, the executive director of the opening and closing ceremonies, said during a press conference at the Plaza Hotel in central Seoul.

Starting from the opening show, the World Student Games will kick off their 12-day run from July 3 across the city of Gwangju and surrounding Jeolla Province, featuring 21 sports and some 20,000 athletes and coaches. This is the third time it has been held in South Korea.

During the press conference, Park said actor Joo Won, TVXQ's U-Know Yunho and pansori singer Song So-hee will star in the opening ceremony. In addition, pop singers such as boy bands SHINee and Block B, hip-hop duo Jinusean, and girl groups EXID and Crayon Pop will be on stage.

Though there are some differences in the celebrity lineup, the list was reminiscent of the Incheon ceremony. The opening ceremony of the Asiad was hit hard for featuring more celebrities and K-pop stars than sports figures, failing to display the legacy of the event or Incheon and abasing the sports stars' presence at the Asiad.

“(In the Incheon Asiad) singers and actors just starred like they were in a parade, but at the Gwangju Universiade the stars will have their roles in the flow of the opening show's story,” Park, known as a trailblazer in Korea’s musical scene, said.

When Incheon Asian Games' opening ceremony executive director Jang Jin was introducing the show, he pledged that the main characters ― Jang Dong-gun and Kim Soo-hyun ― would have the roles of storytellers. However, their presence was overshadowed by the performances of boy band JYJ and singer Psy.

And the details unveiled about the Gwangju show Wednesday raise concerns that Park may follow in Jang's footsteps.

The curtain-raiser will run for 200 minutes from 7 p.m. on June 3 at Gwangju Universiade Main Stadium. The show will open with a performance mixed with samulnori (Korea's traditional percussion music performance) and a Western marching band performance.

Then choreographers will perform gossaum, a traditional mock battle, with athletes entering the stadium to the sounds of Korea's folk songs, arranged as electronic dance music.

Dancers will appear on the stage to symbolize Korea's cultural heritage, then there will be Joo Won and U-Know Yunho, who will depict good and evil.

Despite concerns, Kim Tae-wook, executive producer of the opening and closing ceremonies, pledged, “We will show in Gwangju that we have prepared something different.”