Gangwon Province is preparing “100 Cultural and Arts Concerts,” which will be part of "Art on Stage" to create a higher concept for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics and Paralympics, the "Culture Olympics." Art on Stage will use 4 concert halls that provide good access to visitors from Korea and abroad and will hold 11 to 12 concerts there each day. During the Olympics, such concerts were highly praised, as many visitors from Korea and abroad had a chance to mingle during the concert sessions.

  Art on Stage will hold cultural festivals that will begin on the 9^th of March, to commemorate the opening ceremony for the Paralympics and will end on the 18th to be held at the Gangneung Arts Center, Festival Park Gangneung, and PyeongChang, once again continuing the cultural festival of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics.

Gangneung Arts Center, venue for an Overseas Cultural Concert, and later a Dream Concert 

   First, the opening ceremony for the Paralympics will start off with a bang with an awe-inspiring concert by an overseas arts troupe at the Gangneung Arts Center. The overseas concert will feature instruments and songs that are indicative of each country’s indigenous culture and folk and traditional dances with cultural performance teams from Japan, the Philippines, Mongolia and Russia taking part. There will also be performances by Korean arts troupes that will include everything from traditional concerts to theatre, musicals, dance, even orchestra performances where visitors can enjoy a wide variety of music genres. In particular, at the Gangneung Arts Center, there will be a concert by disabled persons that have overcome physical handicaps and have achieved a high level of artistic ability, which is expected to be quite a sight. Already recognized by several countries, the Healing Concert by Special Olympics Korea, the “Dream Concert the Healing,” by the Korea Disabled Persons Culture Association that displayed a collaboration of both disabled and non-disabled persons, and the “All Together Concert” by the International Association of Culture Exchange for the Disabled will feature a wide variety of genres where art and emotion meld into one as part of a comprehensive arts concert that includes Korean traditional dance, original sign language dance, singing, magic, and crossover.

Festival Park Gangneung, venue for major concerts from Gangwon's cities and counties that boast local color

  From March 10th through the 17th at Festival Park in Gangneung, troupes from various regions of Gangwon Province will take part in a concert that reflects the unique aspects of each region. A troupe from the area where the rose of Sharon originates, Hongcheon, will perform the family story singing skit, “Rose of Sharon Family, the joys and sorrows of fisherman from Goseong will be portrayed in “Eoroyo”, and there will be “Raft Arirang” by the beekeepers of Inje-gun, and a re-enactment of the appearance of residents of Sancheon village gathering their strength and preparing a site for a home in “Sangnori Jigyeongdajigi,” traditional home lot preparing. There will also be 4 performances each day including traditional music and orchestra, chamber music, bands, and even B-boy concerts for visitors and participants to all become part of the same story.

Festival Park Gangneung, venue for a professional music concert for blues, reggae, and even rock bands

   Festival Park Gangneung will prepare diverse music concerts for the duration of the Paralympics. Musicians from various parts of the globe will make up the global village blues band, “Harmonious Earth” that will play new age music for the 21st century with roots stemming from Korean sentiments. Artists from various cultural zones will create a new type of blues that combines blues, a prominent form of music from the 20th century, with the traditional aesthetics of Korea. The reggae band, “Rude Paper” belongs to a genre of music in Korea that while not in the mainstream, it consists of artists that are recognized for being veterans among reggae singers in Korea. With a full-live band session that cannot be easily found in Korea, the band plays reggae music with the keyboard, guitar, and drums as some of the key instruments and prepares music that contains messages of hope and overcoming adversity. Lastly, there will be a concert by the 4-person heavy metal band, “Method” that will take the stage. The name of one song, "Ta Rock" was created with the goal of harmonizing traditional percussion instruments in a piece inspired by the motif of Gangwon Province. The band plays unique music that combines such hard rock instruments as the guitar, drums, and bass with traditional percussion instruments, the Janggu and Modeumbuk.

  There will also be a Martial Arts performance by “Hon,” the Pungmul troupe, “Ddang Wullim,” the band “Duo,” the Hoban Wind Orchestra, the Popera Duo Victoria and various other acts will perform representing genres of cultural concerts that will be performed about 4 or 5 times per day before Art On State visitors starting next week, March 17th (Sat).