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| ▲ This photo, shows director Ahn Jae-jin on the morning of August 22 as he gives a speech at the media day of 'Jarasum Jazz Festival In Jarasum Jazz Universe' held at Seogyo Square, Seoul Living Culture Center, Mapo-gu, Seoul. (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ This photo, shows director Gye Myung Kuk introduce the Jarasum Jazz Festival at the media day of 'Jarasum Jazz Festival In Jarasum Jazz Universe' held at Seogyo Square, Seoul Living Culture Center, Mapo-gu, Seoul. (Yonhap) |
SEOUL August, 22 (Yonhap) -- "The festival is said to be the same as an organism. I hope the Jarasum Jazz Festival will be a festival like a healthy youth in 20, 30 and 40 years."
Lee Jae-jin, director of the 19th Jarasum Jazz Festival, expressed his expectation for this year's event at a press conference held in Mapo -gu, Seoul on Monday.
The Jarasum Jazz Festival, which began in 2004 and established itself as a representative jazz festival in Asia, will be held on October 1 till October 3. It is being normally held after three years due to COVID-19.
The 17th Jarasum Jazz Festival had the festival held online without any audience, while the 18th Jarasum Jazz Festival was reduced by limiting the visitors to 2,000 per day.
This year, 19 overseas teams and 13 domestic teams will be presenting at the festival.
From overseas, vocalist "Jazzmeia Horn," who was nominated for "Best Jazz Vocal Album" at the 60th Grammy Awards, and "Joey Alexander," also known as "Jazz Prodigy," were invited. Domestic artists such as Kim Hyun-chul, a singer representing Korea's city pop, will also participate to present a jazz performance suitable for the deepening autumn.
The organizers said that they applied technologies like Metaverse to this year's event after confirming the possibility of expanding the audience with it during the outbreak of COVID-19.
"When I performed online for the first time, I realized that there were a lot of audiences who could not come due to the geographical conditions," Director In Jae-jin said.
"The most attractive thing is that the metaverse technology, which frees us from the constraints of time and place, allows the audience who can't come to the venue, enjoy the performance together," he explained.
As if emphasizing that the concept of this year's festival is "Metaverse," Director In was also accompanied by the 3D virtual avatar character at the press conference as he explained the details of the event.
In addition to offline performances of the festival, the audience will be able to enjoy various contents such as extended reality (XR) jazz performances and virtual space interviews with artist avatars through the Naver metaverse platform "ZEP."
(This article is translated from Korean to English by Haemin Kim.)
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