Gwangju Fringe Festival Held as an 'Online Festival'

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 22nd that, to allow citizens exhausted from the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic to enjoy the Gwangju Fringe Festival from their homes, the festival will be presented via streaming (live broadcast) through its official YouTube account from the 25th of this month until November 15th.

Artistic Director Im Su-taek stated, “This year, we have set the theme of the Gwangju Fringe Festival as ‘Transition.’ Through the new online delivery method of the festival, we aim to maintain physical distance while narrowing emotional distance, creating a healing festival where citizens tired from COVID-19 can be healed and gain courage through art.”

Originally, this year’s Gwangju Fringe Festival, along with the Bitgoeul Fringe Tour and Gwangju International Street Arts Festival, was designed as a street arts festival with mass appeal by focusing on quality over quantity of performances, seeking diversification by linking with existing cultural events. However, due to the prolonged COVID-19 situation, it was changed to an online festival conducted alongside COVID-19.

In particular, if social distancing level 2 continues, the Fringe Festival and Bitgoeul Fringe Tour will switch to an audience-free, non-face-to-face online fringe festival format, streaming recorded videos of 78 group performances?including 66 public submissions and 12 invited works?from the 25th of this month to November 15th. The Gwangju Street Arts Festival will also expand venues and dates, holding small-scale events dispersed over seven days starting from the 30th of next month.

The online festival videos will be streamed on the official YouTube account of the ‘Gwangju Fringe Festival’ at the following times: 7 PM on the 25th, 4 PM on the 26th; 7 PM on November 9th, 4 PM on November 10th; and every Friday at 7 PM and Saturday and Sunday at 4 PM from November 16th to November 15th. Real-time comments can be left, and highlight videos will be uploaded after the streaming ends.

From the opening day on the 25th through the 26th, 13 performances will be presented, including ‘String in the Latin’ by Jazz Carmina, which showcases Latin music with a modern sensibility; the street play ‘Mermaid Man’ by Baek Seung-hwan, which deals with the earth’s environmental story told by a sea cleaner; and ‘Emotional Clown Story’ by ‘Emotional Clown Zero,’ featuring mime and magic.

At 3:30 PM on the 26th, Team Clown’s performance ‘Quarantine, Bell Train’ will be broadcast live via Instagram and Facebook.

Meanwhile, the Gwangju Cultural Foundation, which organizes the Gwangju Fringe Festival, selected all participating groups through a restricted competitive bidding process, considering the economic difficulties faced by local artists due to many performance postponements and cancellations and the special circumstances of COVID-19.

Among the total 78 groups, 51 groups (65%) are from the Gwangju area, and most of the budget, totaling 1.06 billion KRW, including equipment companies and event support personnel, will be spent on local businesses, resulting in a higher local ratio compared to previous years.

Kim Jun-young, Director of the City’s Culture, Tourism, and Sports Office, said, “Due to COVID-19, we had no choice but to change the existing street festival format and present it as an online streaming festival. As this is an opportunity to connect with a larger audience through smartphones and other devices, we hope it will be a chance for the high-quality local street arts festival to be reborn.”