Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival to go live online

As the COVID-19 pandemic brings a more contactless world, a rock music festival -- an event usually associated with heat and sweat -- will go online.

Iconic rock music event the 2020 Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival will be streamed live online Friday and Saturday. It will be the first online-only event in the festival’s 15-year history.

Organized by Incheon Metropolitan City, the annual festival is held every August at Songdo Moonlight Festival Park. This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was to be held both online and offline in October.

But for the safety of the audience, the musicians and the staff, the organizers have decided to make the festival an online-only event and open it to the public free of charge.

The lineup will consist of leading rock acts here such as Jaurim, Guckkasten, Nell, Galaxy Express and more. Though it is a rock festival, the event will also feature musicians working in other genres, such as hip-hop artist BeWhy and gugak (traditional Korean music) act the Lee Hee Moon Company.

The festival is to feature overseas artists too, such as British modern rock band Travis and US post metal band Deafheaven.

For a more hands-on experience, the organizers are hosting Online Penta Mania. Each day, 300 fans will support the festival through videoconferencing platform Zoom.

This year, the festival will feature performances by local youth bands Band Dale and Jackingcong through the Penta Youth Star Program. The two bands were selected from 299 contenders.

“We will work up Pentaport festival’s color online this year. We hope to prepare a better stage next year,” an official from the festival said.

The festival will be streamed on the KBS K-pop and 1 The K YouTube channels. For more information, visit the festival’s official website at Pentaport.co.kr or the Incheon Tourism Organization’s website at www.travelicn.or.kr.

By Im Eun-byel (silvertstar@heraldcorp.com)