▲This photo, shows packed K-pop concert. (Yonhap)▲This photo, shows, Gocheok Sky Dome. (Yonhap)

 

SEOUL September 3 (Yonhap) -- After the two-year long pause of live K-Pop concerts, now the problem of insufficient venues have emerged.

As social distancing has been lifted, comeback schedules of various idols have flocked with new album releases and concerts, resulting in difficulty of procuring event venues.

According to the music industry on Saturday, major K-pop concert venues such as Seoul Jamsil Sports Complex and the Gocheok Sky Dome are already fully booked until the end of the year.

An official of the Seoul Metropolitan Government Sports Facility Management Office said, “As social distancing has been lifted as of April, venue reservation inquiries have flooded. For instance, the Jamsil Main Sports Complex is fully booked until November when remodeling starts, and the indoors complex is fully booked until February of 2023.”

Another official of the Seoul Facilities Corporation, which is responsible of the management of Gocheok Sky Dome, said “The reservation for Gocheok Sky Dome is full until the end of the year. Due to the nature of dome stadium events, which has rare occasions of being cancelled due to weather conditions, the reservation for this facility is considered over for the year.”

As procuring venues became difficult, more entertainment agencies and production agencies started to reserve venues such as university auditoriums which weren't often used for concert venues.

One of the production agency’s official said “Normally, venue inquiries were done one or two months before the artists' comeback showcase. Now, we need to reserve five months ahead in order to reserve the venue we want.”

For an instance, an idol group had to reserve a relatively substandard venue for their showcase in July since they were not able to procure venues where they used to hold showcase performances.

Another entertainment agency official expressed concerns, saying “Increasing the fans' expectation with the venue's images are important (for advertising), and different venues also bring inevitable troubles to the performance quality, which can cause adverse effects to album advertising.”

Another music industry official said, “It is impossible to rent a venue this year as all the major concert venues have been fully reserved. The only options are to delay the schedule or reduce the scale of the event.”

This official also explained, “Sales earnings through concerts are substantial. Not being able to hold concerts also means losing all that profit.”

As concert schedules are packed, concerns regarding safety accidents of field workers, who work in concert-related fields such as stage installation, has emerged.

In fact, a foreign worker who worked at a stage removal team for artist Psy's 'Summer Swag 2022' in Gangneung, has died due to a fall in July.

Regarding this matter, Kim Dong-gyun, Director of the Venue Safety Support Center under the Korea Testing Laboratory, commented “When performances are being constantly held like now, there are inevitable situations where overnight stage removals have to be done. In this situation, workers' fatigueness increases and attentiveness decreases, resulting in higher risk of safety accidents.”

Also, Director Kim emphasized “Safety issues of stage facilities including the stage itself is directly related to not only the workers' safety, but also the safety of the audience and artists. Therefore, there is the need for closer attention.”

 

 

(This article is translated from Korean to English by Joonha Yoo)

 

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[ⓒ K-VIBE. 무단전재-재배포 금지]