[CONCERT] Seoul's 'K-Link Festival' attracts international crowd

The "K-Link Festival" concert in Seoul attracted a diverse audience of overseas visitors as well as Korean residents. The event featured nine K-pop acts.

Boy band ZeroBaseOne performs its songs at the ″K-Link Festival″ concert on Sunday at the Jamsil Arena in southern Seoul. [YONHAP]

The long queues outside a K-pop concert venue typically include a wide range of nationalities, but Sunday night's “K-Link Festival” concert was the picture perfect scene of diversity that filled southern Seoul’s Jamsil Arena on Sunday night.

Jointly organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization, the “K-Link Festival” concert was held as part of the Visit Korea Year, a government effort to boost tourism. Concert tickets were sold to tourists as part of a package deal.

Out of 7,000 tickets sold to audience members, 3,000 tickets were purchased by overseas visitors and 4,000 by people living in Korea. Of the tourists, 1,700 were from Japan, 900 were from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan and 400 were from Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and Indonesia, according to the culture ministry.

Members of boy band SHINee (from left) Key, Taemin and Minho perform at the ″K-Link Festival″ concert on Sunday at the Jamsil Arena in southern Seoul. [NEWS1]

Members of girl group aespa (from left) Giselle, Winter, Ningning, and Karina perform at the ″K-Link Festival″ concert on Sunday at the Jamsil Arena in southern Seoul. [NEWS1]

A total of nine K-pop acts took the stage: BoA,SHINee,aespa,ZeroBaseOne,Treasure,Paul Kim, Fantasy Boys,EL7Z UP and POW. Different performers spoke in various languages including Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese for the benefit of overseas fans present for the event.

“I hope that the foreigners who have visited Korea in tandem with the 2023-2024 Visit Korea Year get to feel the true beauty of K-culture and Korea,” BoA said. “I’ll keep on trying so that foreign tourists may take continued interest in K-culture.”

“I think it’s more than great that the government is using K-pop to boost tourism in Korea,” 27-year-old Lorena Gomez, a student at Korea University from Spain, told the Korea JoongAng Daily. Gomez has been living in Korea since October as an Asian Studies student.

Singer BoA performs at the ″K-Link Festival″ concert on Sunday at the Jamsil Arena in southern Seoul. [NEWS1]

Boy band ZeroBaseOne performs at the ″K-Link Festival″ concert on Sunday at the Jamsil Arena in southern Seoul. [NEWS1]

“K-pop is so big in Europe and around the world, so it’s more than effective for Korea to use what it does best to have more people come to the country. Korea has such as hardworking culture, and people are so outstanding in what they do, and it’s a great chance to show that.”

One thing that her friend, 21-year-old Ane Martin, hopes to see in future K-pop concerts is notice boards and instruction given in different languages.

“I hope K-pop becomes more inclusive of different languages so that more people could understand what’s going on,” Martin said, adding that subtitles on screen panels could help greatly, since many of the artists’ comments are written before the concert.

“It would be great if people could understand details of what’s going on beyond the music.”

Boy band Fantasy Boys performs at the ″K-Link Festival″ concert on Sunday at the Jamsil Arena in southern Seoul. [NEWS1]

Girl group EL7Z UP performs at the ″K-Link Festival″ concert on Sunday at the Jamsil Arena in southern Seoul. [NEWS1]

The “K-Link Festival” was streamed live on SBS Medianet’s YouTube channel, The K-Pop, and will be aired again on Dec. 17 on channels SBS FiL and SBS M.

“This event was organized as part of our effort to invite foreign tourists to Korea in tandem with the 2023-2024 Visit Korea Year and celebrate the 20th year of Hallyu [Korean Wave], at a time when K-pop continues to grow around the world,” Jang Mi-ran, second vice minister of culture, sports and tourism said.

“It’s ever more meaningful that young people from in and outside of Korea, including Japan and China, get to come together and become one. We hope that this performance gives them an unforgettable experience in their travels in Korea.”

Jang Mi-ran, second Vice Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism takes a look around the concert venue of the ″K-Link Festival″ K-pop concert on Sunday at the Jamsil Arena in southern Seoul. [MINISTRY OF CULTURE, SPORTS AND TOURISM]

Boy band POW performs during the ″K-Link Festival″ K-pop concert held at the Jamsil Arena in southern Seoul on Sunday. [YONHAP]

The government designated Visit Korea Year last December as a special project to boost the domestic tourism market, with the goal of attracting 20 million tourist arrivals and $24.5 billion in tourism revenue by the end of 2024. Ultimately, the program hopes to attract an annual sum of 30 million foreign travelers to Korea and revenue of $30 billion by 2027.

The government's last Visit Korea Year project took place in 2018. In 2019, before the breakout of the Covid-19 pandemic, Korea saw 17.5 million tourists a year. Related information can be found on the Visit Korea Year website in English, Japanese and Chinese.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]