Festival Switchup

Korean rock promoters managed to avoid a scheduling problem that befell their counterparts across the water in Japan.

The Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival will take place one week earlier than its usual last-weekend-in-July so as not to overlap with the Jisan Valley Rock Festival.

In Japan, the Summer Sonic and Rock in Japan Festivals will take place simultaneously the first weekend in August, presumably cutting into each other’s business.

Though the promoters of the two festivals tried to avoid the clash, it was considered unavoidable thanks to venue availability.
In the case of the Korean battle, it was mainly a matter of one festival backing down.

The final weekend is important because that’s also when the Fuji Rock Festival is held in Japan, meaning that whichever Korean festival takes place that weekend can share acts with Fuji.

Though Pentaport is older, last year’s Jisan Valley blowout forged a Fuji alliance and thus offered bigger foreign names. Pentaport, which tends to rely more on high-profile local talent, felt it had no choice but to change its schedule.

Yellow 9, which used to co-promote Pentaport with fellow promoter YESCOM, split with its partner last year to launch Jisan Valley.

Pentaport has yet to announce its lineup but so far Muse, Belle & Sebastian and Massive Attack are scheduled to play at Jisan Valley.