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| Poster for the #SaveOurStages campaign in Korea / Courtesy of C.O.D.E. |
The largest-ever indie online music festival will be held next week to promote concert venues and indie music, which have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Up to 67 indie bands will perform in the week-long online festival from March 8 to 14.
The #SaveOurStages campaign in Korea, which was inspired by the similar #SaveOurStages campaign in the U.S., will present a series of gigs of well-known indie musicians such as Jannabi, Jambinai, Dynamic Duo, Car, the garden, and Crying Nut, each playing for 40 minutes. Many of them will voluntarily participate in the gigs, and some of them have even declined receiving performance fees, donating their efforts to the indie scene, the organizers said.
Audience members can buy a one-day ticket for 10,000 won ($8.80), or a free-pass ticket for all of the performances for 50,000 won. Those who buy the free-pass ticket will also get the chance to watch the gigs again, as they will be streamed online about one week after the show. So far, the #SaveOurStages campaign has raised 19.6 million won by selling some 900 tickets.
The money raised will be used to cover performance fees for the musicians and to create a fund for building a healthier ecosystem for the indie music scene.
The bands will film their gigs at five live music venues ― such as Rolling Hall ― in Seoul's Hongdae area, the home of Korea's indie scene, in order to help the performance spaces financially.
The festival was organized by indie musicians and Yoon Jong-su, or Jay Yoon, a lawyer, who was also a former judge and the chief of the board of C.O.D.E., a non-governmental organization, to help the COVID-19-hit indie music scene, its organizers said.
"I have known Lee Sung-soo of post-hard rock band HarryBigButton for five years now as a fan and friend. He said that the indie music scene is having a hard time due to the coronavirus pandemic. He asked me for some advice in tackling the situation," Yoon said during a radio interview with CBS, Friday, in which he appeared with Lee.
Yoon said that he wasn't able to come up with a legal solution but shared news of the situation on Facebook instead. However, things started to unfold in unexpected ways. "One of my friends who read my post said that he would be able to create an online platform for people to help each other. It just happened in a day."
The move came after a series of historic live music venues in Seoul had to close due to financial difficulties caused by the pandemic. On Jan. 4, Evans Lounge, a venue that had been hosting regular indie rock and jazz concerts in Hongdae since Dec. 5, 2011, shut its doors for good. Other historic venues, such as MUV Hall, V-Hall, Queen Live Hall and DGBD, have also been shuttered recently.
Once In a Blue Moon, a jazz club in Cheongdam-dong, a posh district in southern Seoul, also closed Nov. 14 after 22 years. GBN Live House, a venue for extreme metal and punk in the metalworking district of Mullae-dong in southwestern Seoul, announced its possibly temporary closure Nov. 26.
The government's economic relief package was given to small business entities, but it wasn't enough to help indie music halls and musicians. To tackle the situation, musicians and industry workers have been holding rallies and asking for support.
As of Friday, the country reported 398 new COVID-19 infections for Thursday, including 381 local cases, raising the total number to 91,638, according to data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
Yoon and Lee called for people's attention to the live music scene so that it can continue to exist.
"Once the physical music venues are gone, it is very difficult to restart," Yoon said. "Before the pandemic, musicians and audiences achieved a miracle through performances on countless stages. I hope that this miracle will continue to last, and that we will also create another miracle through protecting our venues," Lee added.
