The “Digital, Media and Culture Festival” kicked off with the “K-pop Super Concert” at the Sangam Culture Plaza in Seoul on Saturday.
Hosted by TV personality Kim Sung-joo and SNSD’s Tiffany and Yuri, the concert saw some of the biggest names in K-pop take to the stage to kick-start the nine-day festival.
Jointly hosted by broadcaster MBC and the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, the DMC Festival will continue until Sept. 13.
The festival aims at promoting the Korean Wave a step further, combining various K-pop content with K-ICT (Korean information and communications technology), which includes light effects, virtual reality and holograms.
“I hope Korean Wave will obtain a higher position in the international stage through the mixture of cultural contents and high-tech information and communications technology,” MBC president Ahn Kwang-han said.
The concert began with “Love Equation” by the boyband VIXX, who showed off cute dance moves under flashy lights appearing on the stage’s LED screen.
After consecutive performances of dance music, South Korean singer Kim Yon-woo changed the atmosphere of the site by singing ballads “What If” and “My Love by My Side” -- Kim’s hit songs from MBC variety show “King of Mask Singer” -- with a changing LED screen, depicting autumn scenery.
(Yonhap)
“All of you are happy now, aren’t you?” said Kim, just before reaching the climax of his last song “My Love by My Side.”
During an intermission, SNSD’s Tiffany also interviewed two foreign audience members beneath the stage, asking, “How do you feel seeing your favorite K-pop star in person?”
“It’s very interesting. I’m impressed that everybody is so good at dancing and singing,” said an attendee from Poland.
The four-member group Girl’s Day began their time onstage with an impressive appearance, with silhouettes of each member’s sexy dance moves showed on a white screen. By coming out from behind the screen one by one, the quartet raised the tempo with recently released track “Ring My Bell.”
As soon as the word “EXO” appeared on the screen, fans shouted the members’ names aloud, proving their high popularity. The group started the performance with “Love Me Right,” appealing with their boyish charm under a blue and white background on the screen, then moving on to “Growl,” showing off a more masculine charisma with sparks flying during their performance.
The seasoned K-pop girl group Girls’ Generation also took to the stage in dazzling white dresses. The group performed recently dropped track “Lion Heart” along with their mega hit song “Gee,” which went viral in 2010.
Many other K-pop singers, including Ailee, B1A4, Teen Top, 2PM, Girl’s Day, CNBLUE, SG Wannabe, Beast, AOA and EXID performed at the concert.
For the rest of the scheduled events for the festival, see MBC’s official website.
By Kim Yu-jin (
kimyujin@heraldcorp.com)
