The Stage Belongs to Youth... Yeongju Brings Teenage Imagination to the Theater

Yeongju City in North Gyeongsang Province is holding an arts festival where young people create the stage themselves and stand as the main protagonists. The event is expected to serve both as an occasion to confirm the potential of local youth culture and as a growth platform for future talents to experience a public performance venue.

Yeongju-si will hold a Youth Arts Festival at the Culture and Arts Center at 4 p.m. on the 21st. (Last year's festival)

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The city announced that it will hold the "Yeongju Youth Arts Festival" at 4 p.m. on the 21st at Kkachi Hall in the Yeongju Culture and Arts Center. The event is hosted by the city and organized by the local arts organization W.A.A., led by Director Kim Jintae.

This year’s festival focuses on expressing the autonomy and creativity of the young generation on stage. It carries great symbolic significance in that school clubs that have been active on campus will present the skills they have honed over time at the city’s leading performance venue and interact directly with the audience.

A total of eight middle and high school dance and band clubs will take part in the performances.

Dance teams such as Arirang (Yeonggwang High School), Arari (Yeonggwang Middle School), Butterfly (Yeongju Girls' Middle School), Crucial (Dongsan Girls' Middle School), and We & You (joint team), along with band teams such as Ajit (Yeonggwang Middle School), Yolo (Yeonggwang Girls' Middle School), and Little by Little (joint team), will take the stage. The genre spectrum is broad, ranging from street performances to live sound.

There will also be special performances by professional artists. The dance crew team "Mars," led by Park Jiyoung, and singer-songwriter Park Bongsun will join to enhance the overall quality of the festival. The natural blend of youth performances and professional stages is expected to raise audience satisfaction.

Above all, the event has added meaning from the preparation stage. Participating students contributed ideas on directing, composition, and progress, taking part in the overall production of the performance. Observers say it is an educational festival model that not only goes beyond a simple presentation stage but also helps develop planning skills and collaborative experience.

Kim Myeongja, head of the Culture and Arts Division, said, "We hope that young people will gain confidence and take a step forward on a stage they create themselves," adding, "We will continue to support the next generation in our region so that they can expand their dreams through culture and the arts."

The city plans to broaden participation by holding a second round of performances in August this year. Through the provision of regular and stable stages, it aims to strengthen the local youth arts ecosystem.

For young people, the stage is not an outcome but a process. The sense of responsibility learned during preparation, the cooperation with peers, and the connection with the audience ultimately remain as assets of local culture. At the moment when the lights of Kkachi Hall shine on them, their present becomes Yeongju’s tomorrow.

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