Big Day South 2016

Interview with Angle Magazine

Photos by Joochan Kim from Big Day South 2015, UIsan

Big Day South will take place on April 30th at Barim Art Space from 11-3pm and Club Nevermind from 4-10 pm.

What is Big Day South?

Big Day South is an annual audio-visual festival created by Angle Magazine, a bilingual audio-visual webzine covering the southern regions of South Korea. The festival is a showcase of the best creative talent that the southern half of the country has to offer. Having grown over the last two years in Daegu and Ulsan, it is coming to Gwangju for the first time this year.

What is the goal of the festival?

Big Day South showcases and celebrates the wonderful talent we have in the south. We hope to create an immersive, interactive event that helps bring communities together. Performers from different cities link up with a diverse audience, not defined by nationality or language but by a love of the arts. Big Day South, like Angle Magazine, is entirely bilingual, to be welcoming and easily enjoyed by all those who enjoy art.

You mention that the event is interactive. How can festival attendees get involved?

There will be a number of art performances at Barim between 11:00am and 3:00pm. During that time we will have a variety of interactive art stations with which the audience can experiment. Anyone can participate as much or as little as he or she likes. Check out the event page on Facebook or the Angle website for more details. We are also welcoming “GACHI” (Gwangju Animal Care Humane Institute), which will fundraise through another participatory event. We encourage active response to performances, be that physical involvement as requested by performers, or just dancing—it really is the best way to show a band that you like what they are doing! Also, share your photos from the event under the #bigdaysouth hashtag to create a collective documentation of the festival.

What are some of the highlights of the previous two years’ festivals?

Personally, the highlight for me was not any particular performance, as I knew every performer would be great. That the event truly was a celebration was a wonderful thing to experience. Seeing people who connected through the festivals go on to work and create together was also immensely rewarding. From the first festival in Daegu, the emotional performance by Kim Yi-Hwa as a reaction to the Sewol tragedy was a perfect example of art’s ability to connect witnesses in a shared experience. In Ulsan, the crowd’s reaction to the final set by Genius at the main music stage summed up what the festival is all about. The band was lost to a total stage invasion when the crowd and members of other bands spontaneously flooded the stage to dance, sing and celebrate together.

How do you expect Big Day South to change and develop by being in Gwangju? Why did you choose to move it there this year?

Angle Magazine has long been aware of many artists and musicians in Gwangju, but it has taken us time to make our way across to the west coast of Korea. With the recent growth and all-too-sudden loss of Salt Art Gallery, and new releases by bands like Summer Never Comes or Amazing Visual, we felt we had to take the leap. On top of that, the city is already home to some great media like PIK, Gwangju News and Keun Soli, and we are grateful for the amount of support we have received from media and musicians. Moving from Daegu and Ulsan to the other side of the country challenges us to build new relationships and highlight artists that we have not had the opportunity to work with yet. Audiences traveling to Gwangju for the festival will find a city that supports the arts and culture and is home to great food and friendly people.

What are you most excited about this year?

I am excited about the number of new performers at this year’s festival. For the third year in a row we have kept a minimal number of repeat offenders. We have invited some back because they have had a wonderful year worth celebrating, but overall the majority are performing for the first time at any Angle event.

Two free tickets to be won by a Gwangju News reader:

Help us build a post-it note art wall at Barim. Doodle on a post-it and add it to others on the wall. To take part in the competition, create your drawing in advance. Take a photo and share it on Instagram under the hashtag #bigdaysouth. Gwangju News will choose a winner to receive the tickets. Bring your drawing along on the day of the festival to receive a free drink of Jameson’s Irish Whiskey at Club Nevermind.

For more information, visit anglekorea.org