Big Day South 2018 audiovisual festival moves to Busan
By Anastasia Traynin
Dancer Samantha Kay
The audiovisual festival Big Day South is coming to Busan this Saturday for a full day of music, art and dance. The festival started in nearby Daegu in 2014 before moving to Ulsan the following year, and more recently appeared in southwestern Gwangju in April 2016.
Back after two years, the fourth installment promises to be bigger than ever, showcasing burgeoning Korean and foreign creative talents from across the country.
The festival is the work of Irish expat Philip Brett, who co-founded the bilingual online Angle Magazine in January 2013. Angle covers artists active outside the capital, and has expanded to organizing regular events, developing a signature theme of live music combined with interactive visual art. Busan expat resident Cindi L'Abbe, a dancer from the U.S., is co-organizing this year's festival.
“With every Big Day South we want to challenge the audience to engage,” Brett told The Korea Times. “This time around we've revisited how we define community.”
Big Day South 2018 takes place across four venues near Pusan National University. Activities shift between venues throughout the day, taking attendees on an adventure through the neighborhood. Art Gallery Open will be dedicated to visual art from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., combining the twin talents of collectives Crazy Multiply and Exotic Beasts. Performances start at noon at Someday with six dance, theater and movement arts performances. At 2:30 p.m., live music starts at Basement and Interplay. At 9 p.m. the action moves back to Someday.
This year's festival is focused on its host city, with the 14 bands including Busan acts All I Have, B9, The Magus and Banana Monkey Spanner, plus Daegu's Drinking Boys and Girls Choir and Gwangju's Dirty Rockhon.
“Personally, I've always found Busan shows more exciting than Seoul shows. The audience here gets in your face, and really interacts with shows,” Brett said.
At the same time, he is excited to bring in new collaborations. This includes
DoIndie, a Seoul-based music website
run by promoters, musicians and fans, which is sending Seoul acts including Billy Carter, Tengger and Nametag to the festival.
also offers special tattoo flashes at a 50 percent discount. Those who get one as a tattoo by April 27 get 75 percent off festival tickets.
L'Abbe praised the festival's collaborative nature.
“A multi-arts festival like Big Day South provides an opportunity for audiences to broaden their experience of art and see something they may not otherwise have a chance to,” she said, “but it also introduces artists who might be interested in cross-discipline collaboration to each other. It can be, and has been, a launch pad for new and exciting projects.”
Her experience performing in Daegu and Ulsan led to her involvement as an organizer and she has been a key force in keeping the festival moving.
“Big Day South is the ultimate expression of our mission at Angle, which is to bring together local artists and art lovers and enjoy all that the community has to offer,” she said.
Big Day South 2018 starts at 10 a.m. and runs late into the night. All-day tickets are 25,000 won in advance or 30,000 won at the door. Single-entry tickets are 12,000 won. Visit
for more information.
Tengger perform at Big Day South 2015. / Photo by Joochan Kim
Contrabassist Lee Dong-hee
The Magus
Drinking Boys and Girls Choir