Busan City Hosts 'Busan Step Up Dance Festival'

July 4-7 at Busan Cinema Center, Official Website Registration Open Until May 31

Random Play Dance on Weekends Across Various Locations from May to June, Starting May 5 at Busan Cinema Center

Busan City (Mayor Park Hyung-jun) will hold the ‘2024 Busan STEPUP Dance Festival’ for four days from July 4 to July 7 at Haeundae Cinema Center and KT&G Sangsangmadang Busan.

2024 Busan Step Up Dance Festival Poster.

This event was planned by incorporating the representative youth culture content ‘street dance’ to create a ‘young and hopeful vibrant city’ according to the ‘2nd Basic Plan for Youth Policy’ announced by the city in March.

Last year’s event, called the ‘Busan Dance Festival,’ has been branded this year as the ‘2024 Busan STEPUP Dance Festival.’

The event is largely composed of two formats: ▲[Individual] ‘World Street 1on1 Battle’ and ▲[Group] ‘Dance Performance World Championship.’

Applications are accepted through the official website of the ‘Busan STEPUP Dance Festival’ until May 31, and online preliminaries will be held.

▲The ‘World Street 1on1 Battle’ is an offline competition (preliminaries-finals) for youth aged 18 to 39 regardless of genre, and ▲the ‘Dance Performance World Championship’ will hold offline final competitions for about 30 teams that pass the online preliminaries judged by the panel.

2023 Busan Dance Festival 1-on-1 Dance Battle.

As side events, ▲‘Global Street Dance Class’ and the newly added this year ▲‘Junior (Pre-Youth) Street Championship’ will also be held for applicants.

To ensure fairness, the main event’s dance categories will be judged by various famous judges.

▲‘Bada,’ leader of ‘Bebe,’ the winning team of Street Woman Fighter 2 (SWF2), ▲‘Bata,’ leader of ‘We Dem Boyz,’ the runner-up team of Street Man Fighter (SMF), ▲‘Akanen,’ leader of ‘Tsubakill’ from SWF2, ▲‘JERIC,’ choreographer for idol group NCT, and ▲‘Calvin,’ leader of ‘Stories,’ the winning team of VIBE 2024, will participate as judges.

Winners of this event will be awarded a total prize money of 33 million KRW. ▲The winner of the ‘World Street 1on1 Battle’ will receive 10 million KRW, ▲the winning team of the ‘Dance Performance World Championship’ will receive 15 million KRW, the runner-up team 5 million KRW, ▲the winner of the ‘Junior (Pre-Youth) Street Championship’ will receive 2 million KRW, and the runner-up 1 million KRW each.

Additionally, the pre-event promotional program ‘Random Play Dance’ will start on May 5 at the Cinema Center and will be held on weekend afternoons throughout Busan in May and June, allowing citizens to enjoy together.

The event schedule may change depending on weather conditions, and detailed information such as participation applications can be found on the official event website.

Nam Jeong-eun, the city’s Youth Industry Policy Officer, said, “Busan was the starting city of street dance in South Korea. Through this festival, we aim to establish Busan once again as the ‘capital of youth culture.’ We look forward to many dancers showing their hidden talents at the ‘Busan STEPUP Dance Festival,’ and hope that the ‘Random Play Street Dance’ held throughout Busan will become a new source of enjoyment for Busan citizens.”