Musicians hope to revive love in Itaewon through music

The country's top musicians are coming together to bring hope and revive love in Itaewon through a music festival set to take place Saturday and Sunday.

A total of 99 musicians including big-name bands such as Leenalchi and Woongsan Band will perform at 13 venues of concert halls, lounges, pubs and clubs as part of "Let There Be Love, Itaewon."

while many concerts and festivals were canceled or suspended to express condolences for the tragic Halloween crowd crush disaster in Itaewon on Oct. 27 that claimed 159 lives, Team Itaewon, the organizers of the music campaign “Let There Be Love, Itaewon,” thought music could also be way to cope with grief.

“Through November, we thought there could be positive roles for musicians to give hope and rebuild love without stopping the music,” said one of the organizers to The Korea Herald in an email interview.

“The campaign was inspired by the charity concert ‘One Love Manchester’ that took place in 2017 after the Manchester Arena bombing,” the organizer said referring to the benefit concert organized by singer Ariana Grande and other musicians in response to the terrorist bombing that happened after Grande’s concert in the arena.

Team Itaewon is group of seven organizers, but many more have come forward to rebuild a community around music.

“We teamed up solely for this campaign. Members of the music community, musicians, Itaewon residents and store owners, and many others who care about Itaewon have joined in,” said the organizer. The team added they have no other plans after the February concert.

Owners of 13 venues provided their places free of charge for performances and all proceeds from the concerts will be donated to a charity or to the victims of the Itaewon crowd disaster, according to Team Itaewon.

Team Itaewon said it will pay greater attention to safety. There are over 120 volunteers so far and the organizers are recruiting even more volunteers for the event through Wednesday.

The festival will take place from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m on Saturday and Sunday. There is a free zone and a ticket zone -- visitors can enter the free zone without purchasing a ticket. Ticket holders can enter both zones. Tickets cost 39,000 won ($32) per day.

Details and the full lineup for the two-day festival are available on Team Itaewon’s official Instagram.