‘Woodstock Festival’, signs of lameness amid various noises [Issue & Talk]

[TV Daily Reporter Kim Ji-ha] ‘Woodstock Music and Art Fair 2023′ (hereinafter referred to as Woodstock Festival) is showing signs of failure.

Conflicts between small business owners and subcontractors over booth operation have surfaced, and in this process, loopholes such as lack of communication between the main contractor and subcontractors, negligent preparation, and poor operation are being revealed, leading to difficulties.

The ‘Woodstock Festival’ is a legendary American rock festival and a global music event called the beginning of popular music festivals. Expectations were high that this festival would become Korea’s first festival with ‘historical significance’ to sign an official copyright contract and be held in a country other than the United States.

This event was originally scheduled to be held in the area of ​​Pocheon Hantangang Multipurpose Plaza from July 28th to 30th. SGC Entertainment, which signed an IP contract with Woodstock Ventures and acted as host and organizer, said, “This event will be held in the nature of the Hantangang River area under the slogan ‘Freedom, Peace and Love’ to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Korean War Armistice.” was promoted extensively.

The lineup announcement has been going on for several months. Yoon Mirae, Tiger JK, Super Junior’s Yesung and Ryeowook, Gongil Obi, Dynamic Duo, Insooni, Lee Eun-mi, Ahn Chi-hwan, Resurrection, Kim Kyung-ho, Kim Wan-sun, Lin, No Brain, Yuk Jung-wan Band, Lazy Bone, Palo Alto, Ali, Five Fingers, Kim Do-gyun, About 60 teams were scheduled to appear, including Love and Peace, Travel Sketch, Woongsan, Taeyang, Park Jung-hyun, Jeon In-kwon, Crying Nut, Yumi, Sunmi, and Exdinary Heroes.

The organizer requested interest by claiming that it was an event with things to see, eat, and enjoy, such as a media façade, magic show, F&B (food and beverage) booth, and camping zone in addition to the music stage, but the schedule started to creak.

On July 14th, two weeks before the event was scheduled to be held, the organizers suddenly announced that they were ‘postponing the event’. He said that the decision was made for “the safety of audiences during the rainy season and for the convenience of audiences,” and that he was confident that “along with the postponement, we will significantly strengthen the lineup not only domestically but also overseas.” The first postponement date was October 5th to 9th.

On August 18, SGC Entertainment announced another schedule change. It was postponed from the 1st to the 3rd of the same month, and the venue was changed from Hantangang River to Paju Imjingak Pyeonghwa Nuri Outdoor Performance Hall. There was no lineup reinforcement as promised. Rather, major singers such as Sunmi, Yoon Mirae, Tiger JK, and Taeyang were missing from the existing lineup.

Nevertheless, the organizers emphasized the meaning of the event and were confident that it would be a success. The location changed to Imjingak was also promoted as the best place to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice.

However, contrary to the confidence of the organizers, there were big and small noises related to the progress of the event at the ‘Woodstock Festival’. What has recently surfaced is the suspicion of ‘booth entry fraud’.

Crazy Kaebi, an agency written by SGC Entertainment, signed a booth management contract with the Federation of Small and Medium Business Cooperatives (hereinafter referred to as the Federation), but a problem arose in the process of the Federation concluding booth contracts with small business owners.

The date has changed and contract performance has become impossible, but deposits and space rent have not been returned to small business owners. Mr. A, a small business owner who suffered damage worth hundreds of millions of won, recently filed a complaint against the association’s president, Mr. B, on charges of fraud at the Guro Police Station in Seoul.

Mr. B said, “I feel unfair because I could not get my money back from the agency,” and said that he is working to return the damages. Crazy Gaebi’s side counters that the problem is that Mr. B “received money from small business owners without authority,”and added, “Once the investigation is conducted, a conclusion will be drawn as to whether this contract is reasonable.”

During Mr. A’s damage appeal, suspicions of fraud, such as demanding ‘kickback money’, also emerged. Person A claims that Mr. B demanded 30 million won in cash instead of arbitrarily adjusting the deposit of 200 million won to 100 million won. Although Mr. B denies this, Mr. A is claiming the association’s denial based on photos taken of a wad of cash about to be delivered.

Before filing a complaint, Mr. A complained of injustice and requested confirmation of the relevant situation from the organizer, but in this process, only a lack of communication was revealed. The organizer claims that it was not aware of the existence of the association or Mr. B, and is taking the form of shifting responsibility to Crazy Kaebi, which is in fact the agency. However, Mr. A is angry, saying that he sent an email to the person in charge of organizing the Woodstock event on August 3rd and informed them of this situation.

Even if, as the organizer says, there is no direct contractual relationship with Mr. B, festival industry officials looking at the situation are expressing their doubts. This is because it is unusual for the organizer, who is supposed to be the control tower, to understand this situation less than a month before the event.

Although the organizer chose a complicated operation method of subcontracting to subcontractors, there are also criticisms that it did not actively engage in communication and increased the work. This is because subcontractors are complaining of damage, saying that they learned of the schedule delay through news articles on the same day.

One industry official said, “The organizer provided the cause in the first place,” and believed that if the organizer unilaterally changes the schedule and adjusts the ticket price and notifies the subcontractors, they will inevitably feel confused. This is because there are sub-contracts between companies and F&B businesses, so financial accidents due to schedule changes would have been inevitable.

While it has been confirmed that there are other booth contract victims besides Mr. A, the organizers and agencies are belatedly asking small business owners about their intention to operate booths. However, this does not seem to be easy as Mr. A and others refuse this.

To make matters worse, concerns have been raised about poor management. Although there is less than a month left until the festival, there are criticisms that safety management preparations are not being made properly.

In performance contracts, even if a rental contract has been concluded, there is usually a clause that states that the performance can be canceled if safety management is insufficient and it is judged that it may interfere with the event, or if singer recruitment and ticket sales are too low. As it appears that the ‘Woodstock Festival’ will not be free from this problem, attention is being paid to whether the historic festival will be able to overcome these concerns and start normally.

[TV Daily Reporter Kim Ji-ha news@tvdaily.co.kr/Photo = SGC Entertainment]

Woodstock Festival

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