Gwangju City to Host 'Fringe Festival' Starting from the 31st

Only on Weekends for 2 Weeks Around 5·18 Minju Square

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 29th that from the 31st to November 8th, over a total of 4 days on Saturdays and Sundays, the ‘2020 Gwangju Fringe Festival’ Gwangju Street Arts Festival will be held as on-site street performances around the 5·18 Democracy Square area.

The Gwangju Fringe Festival had been held online due to COVID-19. With the transition to social distancing level 1, it will now be held as on-site performances.

From 2 PM to 9 PM on Saturdays and Sundays, various street art performances such as circus, performances, and traditional Korean outdoor plays (madanggeuk) will be presented to the audience. It is expected that the previously bleak everyday spaces will be transformed into art stages that anyone can enjoy through performances by Korea’s top street artists.

The festival consists of a total of 18 works, including Dance Theater Chang, which reflects the painful era; Nori Pae Shinmyeong, Gwangju’s representative madanggeuk troupe; On & Off Dance Company, known for dynamic dance arts; Salgeoseu, a multi-arts performance group; and Dandi, a specialized aerial performance theater troupe.

This year’s theme for the Gwangju Fringe Festival is ‘Transition.’ Reflecting the unique situation where prolonged COVID-19 and social distancing have limited on-site communication with the audience, the festival was newly realized as an online arts festival.

To support local artists who were hit hard by numerous performance cancellations due to COVID-19, the event organizations were selected through a restricted competitive bidding process, raising the participation rate of local groups from 46% last year to over 70%.

The originally planned on-site events were converted online and have been provided via streaming (real-time) through the official YouTube account ‘Gwangju Fringe Festival’ since the 25th of last month.

Kim Jun-young, Director of the City’s Culture, Tourism and Sports Office, said, “Due to COVID-19, we inevitably changed our ideas and concepts about the existing street festival and presented it as an online streaming festival. Now, we are pleased to meet Gwangju citizens in its original form where anyone can participate and watch on the streets. We hope many people enjoy the true essence of the street arts festival at this long-awaited on-site festival.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.