Pentaport, Jisan Valley Rock Festivals in July

By Cathy Rose A. Garcia

Staff Reporter

Rock fans in Korea will have not just one, but two rock music festivals to look forward to this summer.

This year, the Pentaport Rock Festival in Incheon faces stiff competition from the new Jisan Valley Rock Festival in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province. Both festivals will be going head to head on the same three-day weekend, July 24-26.

Pentaport's organizer Iyescom is engaged in a public fight with Jisan Valley's organizer Yellow Entertainment, which co-organized Pentaport with Iyescom until last year.

However, the squabbling between organizers will unlikely be of any concern among fans. Fans will be more concerned which rock festival in Korea will be offering the better line-up of bands and performers.

Pentaport

Pentaport Rock Festival will feature 60 foreign and Korean rock bands and performers over three days at the Songdo Daewoo Motor Fields, Incheon.

Iyescom, organizers of the event, announced the initial line-up, which includes foreign acts like Deftones, Eskimo Joe and Lenka. The line-up is dominated by Korean indie bands like No Brain, Cocore, Galaxy Express, Sogyumo Acacia Band, Crystal Rain and 99 Anger.

Pentaport is the pioneer in rock festivals in Korea, having staged wildly successful events since 2006. The Pentaport festival in 2006 included The Strokes, Placebo, The Black Eyed Peas, Franz Ferdinand, Snow Patrol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Jason Mraz, Dragon Ash and Miyavi. The following year featured Muse, Chemical Brothers, L'Arc~en~ciel, Ok Go!, Ash and Damien Rice.

Top acts at last year's Pentaport included Travis, Underworld, Kasabian, Feeder. The Gossip, Ellegarden, The Go! Team and Crying Nut.

Tickets for Pentaport go on sale Thursday. Visit www.pentaportrock.com.

Jisan Valley

Jisan Valley Rock Festival, which will be held at Jisan Forest Resort, Icheon, is challenging Pentaport for the title of biggest rock festival in Korea.

So far, it's getting a lot more buzz, especially since it has snagged British rockers Oasis as the headline act. Oasis remains popular among Korean fans, and had just performed in Seoul last April before sell-out crowds.

Yellow Entertainment, which used to be the co-organizer for Pentaport, has also gotten other big names like American rock bands Fall Out Boy, Jimmy Eat World, Weezer, Japanese group Asian Kung-fu Generation and singer-songwriters Patti Smith and Priscilla Ahn.

Korean performers include Dr. Core 911, Vassline, Vodka Rain, Yozoh, Lee Han-choul, Zitten, Tacopy and Sister's Barbershop.

Many of the foreign acts at the Jisan Valley Rock Festival will also be performing at the Fuji Rock Festival, also held on the same days, at the Naeba Ski Resort, Japan. Oasis and Weezer are the co-headliners at Fuji Rock, which will also have Franz Ferdinand as the headliner.

Tickets will go on sale 2 p.m., May 25 at ticket.auction.co.kr (1566-1369) or ticket.yes24.com (1544-6399). The three-day pass is 165,000 won, two-day pass is 132,000 won and one-day pass is 88,000 won. Visit www.valleyrockfestival.com. For bookings in English, call (02) 3444-9969. Visit www.valleyrockfestival.com.

[출처 : 코리아타임스]