Year-end music events face issues

For K-pop fans, the annual year-end music festivals from KBS, SBS and MBC are always a treat and a chance to see their favorite stars perform on stage. But last year’s festive moods were tainted by big and small accidents on stage which left more frowns than smiles from the viewers.

The biggest accident occurred last week during a rehearsal for the SBS Music Festival. Wendy of the girl group Red Velvet was hospitalized after she fell off the stage, injured part of her face and broke her hip and wrist. The injury will affect the group’s promotional activities and scheduled stage performances for their latest title track “Psycho” from the repackaged album “The ReVe Festival.”

Although SBS broadcast instantly issued an apology for the accident, criticisms ensued from the public that the broadcaster only apologized to viewers and not to the group members. Responding to the criticism, the broadcast released a second official apology to Wendy, her family, the rest of the group members and the group’s fans, but the apology still failed to provide an explanation and the specific cause of the accident.

The KBS Song Festival also had to release an official apology from the producers when the program abruptly ended girl group Apink’s performance.

Singer Kim Jae-hwan had to neglect half of his prepared performance when one of his songs “The Time I Need” was almost cut during the live broadcast of the MBC Music Festival on Tuesday night. The singer had to immediately move on to his next song “Nuna.”

By Lee Jae-lim