The origin of the rock festival ‘Woodstock Festival’ in Korea in July…the first outside of the United States

The Woodstock Festival, called the legendary American rock festival and the beginning of a pop music festival, will land in Korea this summer. It is the first time in Korea that the “Woodstock Festival” has been held in a country other than the United States under an official copyright contract.

The performance agency SGC Entertainment held a press conference at the Korea Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 6th and announced that it will hold the festival “Woodstock Music and Art Fair 2023” from July 28 to 30 to mark the 70th anniversary of the Korean War truce. The venue for the festival has not been decided.

The Woodstock Festival, which was first held in Bethel, New York, in 1969, is said to have shown the peak of rock culture in the 1960s with stars of the time such as Jimmy Hendrix and Janice Joplin participating. More than 400,000 people participated in the festival held from August 15 to 17 of the same year, calling for freedom, anti-warism, and the pursuit of diversity.

Subsequent festivals were then held in 1994 and 1999 and 2009, respectively, to commemorate the 25th, 30th, and 40th anniversaries of the event.

Lim Jin-mo, a pop music critic who attended the press conference, explained the significance of the festival, saying, “The 1960s are the heyday of pop music, where the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Erosa Franklin were active.” Woodstock is a symbol of performance beyond the festival, he said. “It is of historical significance that Woodstock is held in Korea.”

In 2010, there was an attempt to hold the “Woodstock Festival” in Korea, but it was canceled due to issues such as copyrights and casting performers on the use of the festival’s

Kim Eun-soo, CEO of SGC Entertainment, said, “I think you can be happy that ‘Woodstock’ is back in 13 years after suffering from the failure of the performance,” adding, “Sports can be introduced as the Olympics, soccer as the World Cup, and festivals as ‘Woodstock’.”

SGC Entertainment said on the same day that it has not disclosed the cost of purchasing the copyright and the specific festival lineup, but that it is working on a contract with more than 30 teams.