A Korea-Japan club festival comes to Hongdae

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A Korea-Japan club festival comes to Hongdae

The final Friday of every month is the time to hit the streets of the club zone near Hongik University for Club Day. Where is there a better place to whirl away a Friday night when you can make the rounds of some 20 clubs with a single 15,000 won ($15) ticket?
This month’s Club Day, which is today, is a must for aficionados as well as those who’re simply looking for fun, since it’s an upgraded version of the usual affair. Dubbed Korea Japan Road Club Festival, this month’s event rocks the whole neighborhood, better known as Hongdae.
The festival has added outdoor performances and art exhibitions from afternoon through the night, on top of the usual club scene fun. Sponsored by a number of Korean and Japanese government bodies, this Road Club Festival builds a bridge between underground artists of the two countries with a long-time love-hate relationship. You can forget about the feud over Dokdo and simply enjoy the music and art, which the Road Club Festival is all about this year.
Hongdae usually comes to life with the arrival of night, but for this festival, every nook and cranny of the neighborhood will be bustling with fun from early in the afternoon. Starting the extravaganza will be what’s called a Culture Fair, an outdoor event near the clubs Myongwolgwan and Cargo. Featuring a group of artists and musicians from various fields and genres, the events offer hip-hop, dancing and graffiti.
Around the corner at the alternative space called Loop and the bar Latino, an exhibition called Art Event 40 is open to everyone. Organized by Korean and Japanese artists, the exhibition features a group of artists in a relay installation work, which will be shown live to other artists in Latino. Those in the bar are supposed to work on their own piece of art, after watching the others’ at the Loop, cook for the audience and play music, for better “real-time” communication with their guests. Starting at 5 p.m. today, the exhibition continues until April 8.
After a bit of artistic fun, it’s time to plunge into the world of music and dance with six Korean and Japanese DJs spinning their turntables on an outdoor stage, dubbed by the organizers as a Techno Zone. From Japan comes DJ GOTH-TRAD featuring orchestrations of various genres and DJ RYUKYU-DISKO, twin brothers fusing unique sounds from their home base of Okinawa onto techno. Right next to the stage, buildings and walls along the street will showcase more art, with another group of Korean and Japanese artists presenting their work. The Techno DJs will keep spinning until 10 p.m., while the media art performance lasts all day long.
After this outdoor celebration, 10 p.m. is the time to start the conventional Club Day fun, with all 20 clubs in the area open, presenting deejaying as well as live music performances. From 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. especially, every single club offers a performance by either a Korean or Japanese musician, including Korea’s well-received hip-hop artist Joosuc and Japan’s acclaimed jazz band Be the Voice, to name a few. After 1 a.m. the party goes on, with each club offering its own lineup of DJs. All you need to bring is a young-at-heart attitude, ready to join the feast of fun.


by Chun Su-jin

Ticket purchase is available at any club in the area. For more information, visit www.roadclubfestival.com (available in Korean only).
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