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| Greenvilla from Changwon / Courtesy of Greenvilla |
By Jon Dunbar
After skipping a year during the pandemic and coming back in 2021 in a limited capacity, Big Day South is back in full force. The somewhat nomadic arts and music festival is being held this year once again in Daegu, from Friday to Saturday.
"People are pretty excited to be back to standing shows and ready to dance," Philip Brett, one of the festival operators, told The Korea Times. "Personally, this is the first opportunity I've had to gather a number of people who haven't been able to spend enough time together lately."
Over the last couple of years, pandemic restrictions have been especially tough on the live music scene, with concertgoers forced into seats and forbidden from dancing, as well as caps on the number of people. Shows have still been happening but have just been less fun.
But Brett said last year's event was also "a great success."
"We sold out all of the tickets that we were allowed to sell," he said. "While everything was seated at Club Heavy, all our music acts really engaged the crowd, and a lot of merchandise was sold. We tried out a number of things we hadn't done before, such as interviewing performers on Instagram Live in between stages or holding a livestream of the full recorded festival. And best of all, there were no positive COVID cases traced back to the festival, so we managed to hold it safely."
The timing for this year's event is working out well, as it comes after the dropping of most of the pandemic restrictions.
"It has worked out quite well for us," he said. "As we're running our music stage at Club Heavy again this year, we planned as before. The lifting of restrictions allows us to use all of the space Club Heavy has to offer and allows us to sell more tickets. The number of performers, dates and venues all stayed the same. It's almost perfect timing which allows us to be one of the first events of a larger scale to take place after the changes."
He added that some rules will still be in place: participants will be required to wear masks indoors. "But it's still possible to cut loose a little more than last year," he added, calling this "a reunion in terms of the number of people who can attend one show."
This year's festival event, which celebrates the creative communities of Korea outside the capital, will be taking place across five locations, up from last year's two venues. But unlike events like Club Day in Seoul, the schedule is distributed so that everyone moves together from one venue to the next.
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| Daegu band Igloo / Courtesy of Hongban Studio |
The festivities kick off this Friday with three performances at Club Heavy by Jeju singer-songwriter E So and Daegu bands Igloo and Sindosi.
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| Jeju artist Sooyeoun Baek / Courtesy of Sooyeoun Baek |
On Saturday, the action picks up at Alley Experiment Theater for the art stage. Participants include Sooyeoun Baek, a Jeju artist currently in residency at Daegu Art Factory, and a cross-cultural collaboration, with Korean singer-songwriter Keemcool performing with South African movement artist Marcia Peschke, who returns to the festival after a powerful performance in 2018. American musician Wil Pertz will also perform an improvisational set, and Busan dancer Mina Kang will perform her choreographed piece for three dancers.
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| South African movement artist Marcia Peschke / Courtesy of Quaid Jones |
Nearby, Off The Street cafe will host a photography exhibition by Jihye Min, while also offering a space for the audience and performers to mingle in between performance times.
As sunset approaches, the festival will move to Club Heavy's rooftop for acoustic performances by Dajung and Daegu expat group Yesterday's Sushi.
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| Busan alt-electronic duo Haepaary / Courtesy of Hyojin Lim |
Starting at 7 p.m. in the basement, the main music stage will feature Daegu guitar pop band Cosmic Abalone, Changwon's Greenvilla, Busan acts My Yellow Poney and Haepaary.
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| Busan duo My Yellow Poney / Courtesy of My Yellow Poney |
With the long-awaited lifting of curfews, the party will move to Communes for an after party, featuring street performer Ppik Ppik, Daegu band The Plastic Kiz and Seoul-based Jeonju band Oh Chill.
Big Day South is sponsored by Daegu Foundation for Culture and organized by Brett and Bae Meena, bassist and vocalist of local skatepunk band Drinking Boys and Girls Choir, which isn't performing at this year's Big Day South to open up opportunities for other bands .
Ticket prices vary. Visit instagram @bigdaysouth or fb.com/bigdaysouth for more information.
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