Big Day South audiovisual festival revives in Daegu

Drinking Boys and Girls Choir / Courtesy of Drinking Boys and Girls Choir

By Jon Dunbar

Big Day South (BDS), a somewhat nomadic festival spotlighting musicians and artists in various locales far south of Seoul, is back after taking last year off, this time coming to Daegu this Friday and Saturday.

"The easiest reason [for why it's in Daegu] is that it's where I'm living right now. There are so many great people who are willing to work together and support each other," said Philip Brett, an Irish expat who cofounded Angle Magazine, an online magazine which operates the festival. "The Daegu scene is full of people who are working hard to support what is happening down here, and that played a big part in wanting to move here too."

The festival was originally held in Daegu in 2014, then moved to Ulsan, Gwangju and Busan. Last year, it was set to take place in Ulsan again, with a full lineup and schedule prepared, but the whole thing was canceled.

This year, the festival returns to Daegu where it runs for two days at two primary venues, a scaling down from previous sprawling events that led participants on a walk from venue to venue to keep up with the activity. Art performances including storytelling and poetry will be held at the bookshop and screen printing store Smile Broadly, while bands will be performing in Club Heavy, Daegu's landmark live music venue.

"There was definitely a need to make the festival more compact, and it makes it easier to keep everything more controlled," Brett told The Korea Times. "That said, each event is informed by the area where it takes place. Daegu has lost a number of venues over the last few years."

Of course, at the back of everyone's minds, if not right in front, strapped to their faces, is the ongoing pandemic.

Brett assures that the participating venues are handling social distancing measures, based on systems already in place. He mentioned Club Heavy, which has been having shows in the past few weeks, is ready with QR check-ins, hand sanitizer and temperature scans, and that drinking and standing are not allowed inside, with seating provided and a cap of 40 on audience size in place.

"For our part, we wanted to adapt the festival so that many of the regular elements can still happen in some way," Brett said. "While we worry about the possibility of infections, we are sticking to the guidelines provided to ensure the safest event possible."

He pointed out that Daegu's infection numbers have been relatively controlled lately, even while numbers in Seoul remain high.

"It's been an exhausting year-and-a-half so far," he said. "We all need something to celebrate and lift our spirits a bit. With masks and social distancing it's possible to hold an event safely."

He also stressed that the festival was not intended to invite people to the city, but to introduce the artists to local residents, by "using the venues that are the essential life-blood of the local scene rather than a one-time rental of a live house or outdoor stage," according to Brett.

"So for performers or audiences who are new to the area, or even to the idea that there is a scene in their city, it gives them something to come back to outside of the festival," he explained. "Repeating that in each city we've held the festival has given regular attendees a much broader idea of the music scene outside of Seoul."

There are also several online events for people in other cities or countries to join. Brett mentioned they will be holding interviews with the participating musicians at the community stage on the roof of the Club Heavy building, which will be broadcast live on the festival's Instagram page @bigdaysouth. Anyone is welcome to submit questions for the bands online.

As well as enforcing social distancing measures at the live music venue, the art stage is being managed by choreographer and performer Cindi L'Abbe to be more accessible to people while reducing risk. There will be a collaborative community art project, as well as virtual art stage shared on the Angle Magazine website, and VR goggles offered with disinfectant at the festival for people to explore the exhibition.

Additionally, the full festival will be broadcast through Drinking Boys and Girls Choir's (DBGC) Bandcamp page on June 19. Tickets will cost 5 GBP, and the broadcast will be available for one week.

Artist Yeonjeong / Courtesy of Yeonjeong

Daegu has a small and unstable but tenacious art and music scene, which in recent years has been best known for the skatepunk band DBGC, which was picked up by the U.K. label Damnably, a level of achievement rarely attained even by Seoul bands. DBGC previously performed at BDS events in 2014 and 2016, and headlined in 2018, and it is through a video of its BDS performance in 2018 that Damnably took notice, according to organizers.

Bae Meena, frontwoman of DBGC, has become one of the festival organizers for this year.

"Our bodies and minds have been exhausted due to this extended pandemic," she said. "We didn't think the answer was to put the festival off until next year. Isn't our life too short to simply wait for the future that seems to take forever to arrive during this frustrating and seemingly unending period? So we decided to proceed with the event according to the situation. I believe that if we wear masks and maintain proper distancing, it can proceed without a problem."

As well as preparing documents, booking venues and bands and performing on Friday, she also applied for and received support from Daegu Foundation for Culture.

"I went to all the previous BDS events except Busan," she told The Korea Times. "They all remain pleasant memories for me, regardless of the city. I hope the participants of BDS this year will feel the same pleasure as me."

The pandemic came at a critical time for DBGC, just as they were building up momentum overseas. In February 2020, their label mates Otoboke Beaver from Japan quit their jobs and became full-time musicians, and there were plans for DBGC to tour with them in Europe, the U.S. and Asia, but the pandemic canceled everything, according to Bae.

After that happened, Bae said her band started working on its second full-length album. They finished recording last November and the songs are available on Spotify and Bandcamp, ahead of a domestic release on July 21.

Cotoba / Courtesy of Cotoba

The other bands performing for BDS are Hon'z, Soumbalgwang, Polyp, Cotoba, Bosudong Cooler and Wussami. The artists at Smile Broadly are Jordan Schauer, Aarti, Amy Rose, Shin Hae-ri & Park So-jung, Dominique Worthing and Yeonjeong, and artists at the virtual art stage include Monica Nickolai, Nick Heroux and Ryu Mi-kyung. And of the 17 participating acts this year, 15 are or include women or non-binary performers.

Visit instagram.com/BigDaySouth, fb.com/bigdaysouth or anglemagazine.co.kr for more information.