The upcoming K-pop World Festival in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province is gearing up to showcase the talents of some of the world’s most die-hard K-pop fans in the annual international Korean music cover dance and song festival this October.

In order to find the best candidates to represent Cambodia in this year’s competition, officials at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Cambodia have announced that they will be holding a preliminary K-pop festival next month.

The embassy is looking for the best amateur Cambodian K-pop acts to represent the nation and compete among the other handfuls of international qualifiers as K-pop cover artists in the upcoming global K-pop festival in Changwon. Each group or soloist will battle it out on the stage in the hopes of winning the title of best K-pop act of the night and being sent to Korea to compete for the ultimate grand prize of 10 million won. 

Last year’s festival was cutthroat with participants from 43 countries and 59 cities facing 4000:1 odds to win a spot in the actual competition, which was broadcast worldwide through KBS with 200 million-plus viewers.

Auditions are set to be held at the Cambodia-Korea Cooperation Center in the country on July 25. Winners of the preliminary K-pop festivities will receive a wide range of prizes including digital cameras, Samsung Galaxy smartphones and roundtrip airfare to South Korea to compete in Changwon in October.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)