Release Date : November 3, 2020.

This document is confidential until it is distributed on the release date.

ASEAN and Korea will participate in the “ROUND 2020” music festival ROUND 2020 (ASEAN • KOREA MUSIC FESTIVAL)

(Photo courtesy of AKMF Secretariat)

The ASEAN • Korea Music Festival ROUND 2020 will be held online on December 6th. Over 20 teams from 10 ASEAN countries and Korea will participate.

A colorful lineup featuring Song So Hee with 2nd Moon, Hoppipolla, Sunwoojunga, BOL4, Ben&Ben, Aluna Thavonsouk and SmallWorld SmallBand has been revealed.

Hosted by the Korean broadcasting company KBS, sponsored by 10 ASEAN countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam in alphabetical order), and supported by the ASEAN-ROK Cooperation Fund contributed by the Korean government, the first ROUND 2020 will be held on December 6th. Sponsored by 10 ASEAN countries, the ASEAN Secretariat, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea, this festival was planned to connect ASEAN countries and Korea through the universe of the language of music and lead to an exchange of cultures and strengthened mutual solidarity.

In particular, this festival is a project that focuses on providing a place for communication and cultural exchange among young generations in each country by expanding the cooperative relationship between ASEAN countries and Korea—which is at the moment relatively oriented toward the economy—to music and culture, solving the side effects of the K-pop idol-centered Hallyu (Korean Wave), and establishing a music industry network between the countries.

ROUND 2020 was originally planned in the form of an offline festival in which musicians and audiences from 10 ASEAN countries and Korea would gather together to share their countries’ music and cultures. However, due to the COVID-19 spread across the world, it was decided that ROUND 2020 would proceed in the form of online streaming, which will allow viewers from all over the world to watch and communicate in real time.

For the successful hosting of ROUND 2020, influential people in the music industries of ASEAN countries and Korea were selected to launch the ASEAN-Korea Music Committee (AKMC) in the first half of this year. These people will introduce talented artists from their countries and allow those artists to appear on the stage of the upcoming festival to facilitate musical exchange between countries. Also, AKMC members are in the midst of sharing the current respective statuses of their countries’ music industries through video conferencing and preparing for the music industry forum—one of the major programs featured in ROUND. This forum, in which music commissioners and people in the music industries of each different country will participate, will be produced in the form of lecture-type videos covering the topic of "the music industry after the COVID-19 pandemic”. These videos will be released on the ROUND YouTube channel.

PD Hwang Gukchan of KBS, the producer of ROUND 2020, had the following to say: “At the beginning of last year, a music exchange was planned with 10 ASEAN countries. However, this has now developed into a more meaningful festival to overcome COVID-19, which hit the world in January of this year. As the performance dates were delayed several times—from June and October and finally to December—after many difficulties, the production staff is planning to give everything they have to create an unprecedented festival.”

The ROUND 2020 festival will feature the most talented musicians in various genres from 10 ASEAN countries and Korea. “DINSHE” from Brunei, “SmallWorld SmallBand” from Cambodia, “Aluna Thavonsouk” from Laos, “Zamaera” from Malaysia, “Thar Dee Lu” from Myanmar, “Ben&Ben” from the Philippines, “Charlie Lim” from Singapore, and “Vũ. & Skylines Beyond Our Reach” from Vietnam will be participating. “DAYBREAK”, “Sunwoojunga”, “SORAN”, “Song So Hee with 2nd Moon”, “Hoppipolla”, “George”, and “Elaine” will be joining from Korea.

If you are selected as a global participating audience member for this festival, you will be able to root for the performers freely in the online VIP zone. Audience members that enter the online VIP Zone will also be visible to musicians performing on the stage, and it's hoped that this effect will create a stage that communicates with the audience just as if each audience member were in the actual venue.

When the application window for participating audience members opened last week, music fans welcomed the new festival and responded with fervor, making the following comments: "I hope that music will comfort everyone in these difficult times”, “It's a dream come true to be able to see the performances of my favorite artists all in one year”, and "I am really looking forward to seeing a stage full of artists from other countries I didn't know about as if they were right in front of me”. In particular, it is expected that audiences who usually enjoy visiting concerts and festival sites will be able to have a similar experience by participating in online streaming performances where they can communicate and interact with artists as well as audiences around the world in real time. 

Limited goods will be provided to global participating audiences. Details on participation can be found on the ROUND 2020 website (roundfestival.net).

Contact: Ji in Min +82 10-8858-3677 / hugast@roundfestival.net