The fourth annual 2013 Hallyu Dream Festival held in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, is set to launch its K-pop-filled events on Oct. 5 and 6.

This year’s Hallyu Dream Festival will include the K-pop Cover Dance Festival and the final Hallyu Dream Concert, as well as cultural awareness events.

The lineup for the upcoming Hallyu Dream Concert, which will be held on the second day of the festival, includes big-name K-pop acts such as TVXQ, 4minute. Sistar, Crayon Pop, 2AM, KARA, T-ara, Ailee, UKiss, A-Pink, Davichi, A-Jag, BTOB and many others. 

The cover dance contest will take place on day one of the Hallyu Dream Festival. Domestic and international K-pop lovers will gather to strut their stuff on the stage in front of the audience in hopes of proving they know their K-pop.

K-pop Cover Dance Festival participants, primarily chosen by fans in online preliminary matches, will have regional preliminary team matches where the performances will be assessed by a panel of expert judges such as well-known local choreographers, musicians and directors of commercials. Teams that prevail in the regional offline matches will participate in the final contest, where they will get the opportunity to appear on the stage for the Hallyu Dream Festival.

The K-pop Cover Dance Festival attracted online submissions by 2,000 participants from 73 countries. Entrants created and uploaded videos of themselves performing cover dances to their favorite K-pop songs, and the top 10 teams have been invited to perform and compete at this year’s festival in Gyeongju.

The city of Gyeongju has hosted the event for the past three years. In cooperation with the Korea Entertainment Producers Association and sponsorship by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the city is once again hosting the event in hopes of promoting Korean culture and tourism.

The upcoming K-pop Cover Dance Festival will be held at the Gyeongju Arts Center on Oct. 5 while the Hallyu Dream Concert will be held at the Gyeongju Civic Stadium the following night. For more information, visit www.hallyudreamfestival.or.kr.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)