67 indie music groups to perform for 5-day #saveourstages Korea

Korean online music festival #saveourstages kicked off Monday with the aim of supporting indie music venues hit hard by COVID-19.

A total of 67 groups will be performing through Friday at five different stages -- Rolling Hall, West Bridge, Prism Hall, Radio Gaga and Dream Hall -- all located in the Hongdae area in Seoul, which is known for its indie music scene. Each venue will host about two acts per day, giving guests a diverse choice of music to listen to.

“We can’t solve this difficulty all at once, but we took the first step from a desperate desire to preserve the community of indie music-centered independent music venues. For a week, diverse musicians will perform live music at several independent music venues, and audience members can buy tickets and participate in the festival online,” said C.O.D.E., the nonprofit organization that organized the event.

All profits will go toward covering the costs of the festival and to the independent music venues and musicians who participate in the festival. Any remaining funds will be used to further help the indie music industry. The event was inspired by the #saveourstages concert that took place in the US last year. That event led to the legislation of the Save the Stage Act aimed at helping music venues.

The pandemic has led many longtime indie concert venues in Hongdae to shut down for good, despite governmental support plans. MUV Hall, Evans Lounge, V-Hall and Queen Live Hall are among the well-known indie venues that have closed their doors.

Jannabi, DJ DOC, 6Band, Dynamic Duo, Soran and Crying Nut, among others, have joined in the effort to help with the cause.

“Due to COVID-19, many clubs and concert halls in Hongdae are suffering. Musicians like us were able to take our first steps in those places, so I hope you can all help protect these places,” said Choi Jung-hoon of Jannabi.

Many in the music industry have also joined in to help the cause of supporting indie music venues.

Online performance platform Presented Live set up online ticketing and hosted the event free of charge, while School Music, which sells instruments online, has donated equipment for the concert. Furthermore, music streaming platform Melon set up playlists to promote participating artists while music channel Mnet made an advertisement video to show on its channel for free through Friday.

Tickets to the festival are 10,000 won for each day and can be purchased through saveourstages.cc, while the festival can be seen through Presented Live.

By Lim Jang-won (ljw@heraldcorp.com)