Local broadcasters unveil lineups for year-end music festivals

With the end of the year fast approaching, broadcasters are preparing to hold their annual year-end music festivals, featuring star-studded lineups of artists and hosts.

The final list of performers for the state-run KBS’ “Song Festival” shows 20 groups and artists, including Red Velvet, Enhypen, Aespa, Lee Mu-jin, Seventeen, Sunmi, Nu’est, Kang Daniel, Astro, Brave Girls, NCT U, Kim Woo-seok, StayC and Ive.

Under the theme of “With K-Culture,” performances by boy band Stray Kids and girl group Oh My Girl will combinge K-pop and traditional culture onstage. Hybe labelmates Tomorrow X Together and Enhypen are also to show a special joint performance.

The 185-minute event is set to take place at KBS Hall in Yeouido, Seoul, and will be hosted by Astro’s Cha Eun-woo, AOA’s Seolhyun and SF9’s Rowoon. The show will be broadcast live on KBS 2TV on Friday at 8:30 p.m. with a live audience.

Broadcaster SBS‘ year-end music show is scheduled for Dec. 25. Under the theme of “Welcome,” this year’s “SBS Music Awards” is expected to highlight hopes of returning to normalcy, that would allow artists and fans to meet in-person and music and people to reunite.

While the artist lineup has not been announced, the broadcaster hinted that K-pop artists would hold special performances for Christmas Day.

“SBS Music Awards” will take place at the Namdong Gymnasium, in Incheon. The show will also be broadcast live on its main channel at 6 p.m. While SHINee’s Key, Itzy’s Yuna, and Boom will host the show this year, whether a live audience will be invited to the venue has not been decided, according to SBS.

Hosted by Girls’ Generation’s Yoona, 2PM’s Junho and celebrity Jang Sung-kyu, MBC’s “Gayo Daejejeon” is scheduled to be held on Dec. 31 at 8:40 p.m. at Ilsan MBC Dream Center. The full lineup of performers is yet to be released. A live audience will be invited to the event, but this may change depending on the government’s social distancing guidance, an MBC official said.

By Jie Ye-eun (yeeun@heraldcorp.com)