SM to hold star-studded weeklong concert series

SHINee, Girls’ Generation, TVXQ, Super Junior, f(x) and EXO will all combine forces next month in S.M. Entertainment’s first weeklong concert series festival.

“SMTown Week,” will parade the six leading teams of the SM family starting Dec. 21 in an eight-day back-to-back solo concert performance series being held at KINTEX exhibition center in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province. It is expected to attract around 100,000 fans, including those coming in from overseas on special travel packages.

SHINee will open the music festival on Dec. 21 followed by Girls’ Generation on Dec. 22. Two-day back-to-back combined concerts for f(x) and EXO will be held Dec. 24-25, followed by TVXQ on Dec. 26-27. Super Junior will close out the festivities on Dec. 28-29.

The nine starlets of Girls’ Generation recently made a surprising win at the inaugural YouTube Music Awards ceremony on Monday, beating out bigtime stars such as Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, One Direction and even YouTube phenom Psy to walk away with Video of the Year for the hit music video “I Got a Boy.”

The TVXQ duo is also expected to give a particularly special performance as the group will celebrate its 10th anniversary at their Dec. 26 performance.

Tickets for the upcoming concert series will go on sale online at Gmarket on Tuesday at 8 p.m. Concert-goers can purchase individual show tickets, an “All” package for all eight performances or “Choice” tickets to select up to four shows.

“SMTown Week” has been established as a global concert brand that is separate from the agency’s “SMTown Live” concert tours. In the spirit of encouraging more international fans to attend the locally held music festival, officials of S.M. Entertainment have put together a special global package that became available for purchase on Thursday. For more information, visit www.smtowntravel.com.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)