World K-pop fans to gather in Wonju

Foreign participants perform Psy’s horse-riding dance during the “2012 K-pop Cover Dance Festival” at Gwanghwamun Plaza on Sept. 21, 2012. / Courtesy of Visit Korea Committee

By Shim Jae-yun, Park Jin-hai

International K-pop fans will flock to Wonju, Gangwon Province, to participate in the “2013 K-pop Festival” this September.

The festival will be hosted by the Gangwon Provincial Government, in collaboration with the Visit Korea Committee and Wonju City Government, as part of promotional activities leading to its hosting of the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.

Foreigners who wish to participate should apply by posting a video clip of themselves performing a dance of their favorite K-pop star through its website (www.kpopfestival.org). The application kicked off on May 6.

All the submitted posts will go through an initial screening process based on the number of views and votes received from netizens, and the points will be awarded by professional judges.

Candidates that make it pass this stage will be invited to auditions in 12 different countries and successful ones will be invited to the festival scheduled for Sept. 28.

“K-pop cover dancing which copies the singing or dancing style of their cherished stars has been taking the world by storm, thanks to the ever growing popularity of hallyu (Korean wave),” said a provincial official.

“We expect this year’s K-pop festival would garner much more attention from fans around the world, so will the PyeongChang Olympics,” he added, expressing high hopes about the festival.

The festival organizers are expecting to fill all the 20,000 seats of the concert hall. K-pop stars will also be performing to grace the event.

The eventual winners will be offered the chance to experience Korean culture through organized tours to scenic tourist attractions within the Gangwon Province. They will also be designated as promoters of the Winter Olympics.

The forthcoming festival will broadly target countries in Eastern Europe such as Poland and Hungary and African nations like Nigeria where the hallyu impact is relatively weak. Other target areas include America and South East Asia, an official of Visit Korea Committee (VKC) said.

The festival will be supported by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Korean Culture and Information Service, and Korea Tourism Organization. Sponsors include Astronergy Solar Korea, Korean Air, Lotte Members, GKL, etc.

The grand finale will have K-pop stars as judges. The contest will also be broadcast in more than 10 countries through SBS MTV and MTV Asia.

The “K-pop Cover Dance Festival” in 2012 attracted 1,850 teams from 70 countries with some 70 from 13 teams making it to the festival.

“We also expect more than 1,000 teams will take part in this year’s festival from around the world and plan to invite 80 to 90 members from 15 teams this year,” Lee Kyung-hee, in charge of the festival’s PR at the VKC told The Korea Times.