The Nation's Largest 'Kokaka Art Festival' to Be Held in Gimhae This Year

Hanmunyeon Selects Host City Annually Through Public Contest

The Korea Culture and Arts Centers Association (KoCACA, hereinafter KoCACA) announced on the 8th that the ‘2024 KoCACA Art Festival’ will be held from the 3rd to the 5th of next month at the Gimhae Culture and Arts Center area.

‘KoCACA Art Festival’ Poster [Photo by KoCACA]

This event is hosted by KoCACA, co-organized by KoCACA and the Gimhae Cultural Foundation, and sponsored by Gimhae City and Hyundai Motor Group. This year, the Jeju Haevichi Art Festival, which has been held in Jeju Special Self-Governing Province since 2008, has been reorganized and newly presented as the KoCACA Art Festival. Through a call for hosting locations, this is the first year the festival will be held on the mainland, and the hosting location will be selected annually through a public contest to tour nationwide. The festival slogan has been set as ‘Reboot’ to signify a new beginning.

On June 3rd and 4th, over 150 cultural centers and arts-related organizations will participate in operating booths at the KoCACA booth, actively exchanging with over 200 arts groups. On the 3rd, the repertoire pitching session will feature 15 arts groups from theater, musical, music, dance, traditional, and multi-disciplinary fields introducing their repertoires to cultural centers and proposing collaboration, providing a time to promote their works.

On June 4th, the KoCACA Best Practice Presentation Contest and roundtable will be held. The new program, KoCACA Best Practice Presentation Contest, is designed to discover cultural centers with self-sustainability and competitiveness, share excellent management cases, and promote mutual development. A total of three outstanding cultural center cases, including the grand prize and excellence awards, will be selected. This contest is expected to contribute to strengthening the professionalism and revitalizing the operation of cultural centers by sharing experiences and excellent cases accumulated in the arts field.

Jeju Haevichi Art Festival operated by Kokaka.
[Photo by Kokaka]

The KoCACA Forum will address the hottest topics in the culture and arts sector. Section 1 will present a performance and lecture combining AI and drawing under the theme ‘Sustainable Arts through the Integration of Artificial Intelligence and Arts.’ Section 2 will be conducted under the theme ‘Operation of Cultural Centers in Response to Future Environmental Changes,’ examining topics such as the past, present, and future of ticket sales, barrier-free theaters, and the future value of public theaters.

Additionally, during the festival period, the KoCACA Fringe, co-hosted and co-organized by the Gimhae Cultural Foundation and the KoCACA Busan-Ulsan-Gyeongnam branch, will present small-scale busking performances at the Gimhae Culture and Arts Center area, allowing close interaction with the audience.

A KoCACA official explained, "This event focuses on creating a program that opens a lively exchange platform for performing arts distribution among culture and arts professionals, fully concentrating on the original purpose of the performing arts distribution platform to serve as a foundation for a new beginning."

Detailed schedules and information can be found on the KoCACA website.

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