This weekend in Gwangju, Korea's brightest and best young musicians join forces with some of the biggest names in the rock and indie scene for the 5th Gwangju Youth Music Festival. Ten acts from across the country will compete for the big prize of a recording contract and an appearance on MBC's 난장 concert series, broadcast nationwide. Joining the newcomers on stage will be past winners, and some Korean rock legends.

 
Achime

The 'Pre-Festa' kicks off the festivities this Friday at 7pm down at U-Square (Bus Terminal). Previous GYMF prize winners WindyCat, Lunatic and many more will take the stage in an exciting precursor to Saturday's main event. One of my personal favourites, Seoul's Achime (아침) will also be performing live.

The Festival itself is held this year at Yeomju Gymnasium, and begins the following day at 2pm. The day is broken up into separate parts; the real action gets underway at 4pm with the "GYMF and 난장" segment of the show. This is a showcase of four of the country's best current indie bands, and will include performances by Guckkasten,  Kingston Rudieska, GoGo Star, and Sweet Revenge.




The ten competing acts (all aged between 13 and 24) will perform their competing songs live on stage from 6pm and will be joined by rock legends 김창완, Cherry Filter and soul singer 정인. Boy band MBLAQ will keep the middle schoolers happy by closing out the show after the prizewinners have been announced.

While the festival has not yet in my opinion succeeded in finding the Next Big Thing in rock / indie music (many of the previous winners have since disappeared off the radar), it provides a welcome diversion from the legions of "sexy-dancers", faux hip-hop and cookie cutter ballad singers that Korean youth is exposed to 24/7. If the festival convinces at least one kid to pick up a guitar or a pair of drumsticks instead of a 노래방 microphone, then the GYMF has done its job.

For more information (all in Korean), visit the official GYMF site.