Fans looking to rock out will have to choose between a pair of high profile three-day music-fests this July.

A fight is brewing between IYESCOM and Yellow 9, the two concert promotion houses that will organize the upcoming Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival and the newly formed Jisan Valley Rock Festival. Both organizers are facing a dilemma at the moment as the two festivals are scheduled for the same weekend, July 24-26.

However, Yellow 9 has the upper hand due to a line-up stacked with internationally recognized bands such as Oasis and Weezer, while IYESCOM`s Pentaport-fest is comprised of mostly Korean underground acts, with popular Korean punk rockers No Brain one of the few notable bands performing.



In 2006 the two organizations joined to create The Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival, formerly known as the Tri-port festival when it was unveiled in 1999 - the event never took place due to extreme weather conditions. But since its inception under the new banner, the event has become the biggest three-day music festival in Korea bringing some of the world`s most popular bands to the port city west of Seoul.

Last year`s festival attracted an estimated 50,000 people with foreign nationals making up more than 20 percent of that figure.

So what was the reason for the split?

According to IYESCOM, "Yellow 9 decided to rescind their contract with us and got off the reservation to start-up their own festival."

"They have subsequently registered the Pentaport brand name and trademark rights on their own without notifying us and have left us out."

Yellow 9`s response was, "For three years we have been 600 million won in the red and the only reason we registered the rights to the festival was due to IYESCOM`s demands for exclusivity without including the city of Incheon or the other third-party organizations that took part in the festival`s production as co-holders of the rights to the Pentaport name.

"We do intend on returning the trademark rights as long as it is not solely to IYESCOM."

As is the case for most business enterprises that go sour, money has been a large issue.

"There is also the question of a financial obligation IYESCOM has yet to settle. They still need to reimburse us for the losses we met from our participation in the previous editions of the festival," Yellow 9 added.

Yellow 9 insisted the company never intended to not return the rights to the Pentaport name to the city of Incheon and IYESCOM.

IYESCOM, however, struck back by claiming they did not have financial obligations tied to Yellow 9 and that "the rights to the Pentaport name being used as collateral to make these demands are ridiculous."

"Even if we were financially obligated to Yellow 9, does that have anything to do with hoarding the rights to the festival name, as they are doing?"

The conflict between the two promoters is not as significant as the effect it will have on the music festival culture of Korea.

The biggest problem for fans is that both festivals will be on the same weekend. Because the Pentaport Rock Festival has already taken place on the last weekend of July three consecutive years, a move to a different set of dates would damage its reputation.

Yellow 9 and the rest of the organizers of the Jisan Valley Rock Festival are claiming "it is easier for us to negotiate with international bands performing at the Fuji Rock Festival to be added to our line-up as that festival coincides with ours on the same weekend."

Whatever the outcome, the biggest losers will be the fans.

(kws@heraldm.com)



By Song Woong-ki