August 2023

A New Perspective on Festivals

Director Jae-jin In (JJ) majored in English Literature in college. With no interest in studying, he failed to secure a career path in the run-up to graduation. JJ applied to jobs at a variety of places, including broadcasting companies, newspapers and advertising agencies, until landing a job at a clothing company. However, he came to dislike the predictability of the job and quit after six months. JJ turned back to the fun experience he had playing in a band as a student and started a company that handled anything music-wise. By chance, jazz was all the rage at the time. JJ realized that was no one working specifically on jazz and focused his efforts on the genre. He believed that jazz would be in the limelight at some point, even operating a jazz-only performance theater called ¡°Strawberry Theater.¡±
Embassies and performance organizers who knew JJ¡¯s skills sought him out for jazz-related festivals. That¡¯s how he came to travel the world and experience a wide range of cultures. Along the way, he met the organizer of Finland¡¯s Pori Jazz Festival at an international jazz forum. He invited JJ to the Pori Jazz Festival, which allowed him to meet the stars of the jazz world and see 40,000 fans go wild at the festival¡¯s music. That¡¯s when JJ felt a strong desire to make his own jazz festival.
After he returned to Korea, JJ conducted a lecture on culture for a newspaper at the request of a friend. Wanting to organize his own jazz festival, he told the lecture participants about jazz festivals and his own dreams of organizing one. Perhaps because of the enthusiasm he showed, a Gapyeong County Office employee, who was one of the lecture participants, contacted him afterwards to say that he, too, wanted to organize a jazz festival.

Attempting Something Never Before Done in Korea

JJ and the Gapyeong County Office employee looked for places to hold their festival. They found themselves disappointed at failing to find a suitable place, but then the employee suggested Jarasum, the island that floods when it rains. While looking at the emptiness of the island, the man had thought of the Pori Jazz Festival. JJ wanted to recreate the Pori Jazz Festival at Jarasum. He felt that they could create a festival that would allow people to lay on the grass and listen to jazz in a peaceful atmosphere.
However, he faced a barrage of criticism that holding a festival there would be too reckless. ¡°Everyone said I was a crazy person. It¡¯s true today, too, but jazz wasn¡¯t a particularly popular genre of music back then. What¡¯s more, I was proposing to hold a jazz festival in an unknown place.¡± Despite the criticism, JJ firmly believed that the Jarasum Jazz Festival would be a success. ¡°There wasn¡¯t much in the way of festival culture in Korea at the time, but I felt like people would one day enjoy going to festivals.¡±
He did, of course, experience a sense of dread. People gathered at the island to complete construction work for the festival and were reclaiming what was essentially a wasteland. As he watched the construction process, JJ was suddenly hit with fear of the unknown. ¡°I was taken aback at how I was able to lie so well to get that many people to work hard under the intense heat of the sun. Frankly, I felt a sense of dread because nothing like it had ever been attempted in Korea before.¡±
At the end of the windy road, however, the first Jarasum Jazz Festival opened its doors. On the day of the festival, JJ was worried whether anyone would show up?only to find that around 20,000 people had streamed into the venue. His happiness was brief: On the second day of the festival, rain turned the venue into a mess. The festival, however, went on. The audience cheered on the enthusiastic performances put on by the artists in the continuing rain. From then on, the Jarasum Jazz Festival has been held every year, and celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. People say that while there are those who have never visited the festival before, those who have experienced the festival always come back again.
What attracts people to the Jarasum Jazz Festival? The festival aims to promote ¡°nature, family, leisure and music.¡± It¡¯s important to note that the festival doesn¡¯t place a priority on music, nor does it emphasize the genre of jazz. The Jarasum Jazz Festival is a venue not just for music, but also for programs that allow visitors to enjoy the outdoors. It features makgeolli (unrefined rice wine), wine and vin chaud made from locally sourced ingredients in Gapyeong, along with a market with farmers and sellers from Gapyeong. ¡°Even if you don¡¯t know anything about jazz, you can listen to music and spend a leisurely day at Jarasum. On the island, everyone can enjoy its tranquility. You might also find that you like jazz along the way!¡±
The Jarasum Jazz Festival isn¡¯t just about ¡°music,¡± and that¡¯s because of JJ¡¯s unique sense of things given his experience in other areas of the business world, which allowed him to view festivals through a new perspective. ¡°If you ask the world¡¯s music festival organizers about festivals, they¡¯ll probably just talk about ¡®music.¡¯ But it¡¯s not easy to organize a music festival just around music. There¡¯s a whole host of abnormal factors inherent in holding a festival, including whether you hold it inside or outside. You have to take all those factors into account.¡± JJ¡¯s unique take on festivals have allowed the Jarasum Jazz Festival to work off its strengths and establish itself as one of Korea¡¯s most popular festivals.

A Festival That¡¯s Not Just About Music

The ¡°focus country program¡± introduces jazz in specific countries and is a signature promotional device for festivals, highlighting jazz and its artists. There are some countries that wait for 2 to 3 years to take part in the program. In 2023, Canada has been the focus of the program.
The ¡°spirit of jazz¡± flows through the festival. ¡°Based on my experience meeting with them, there are commonalities between people who play jazz and those who listen to it. They all respect each other, make concessions and promote friendship. I believe that¡¯s the essence of the spirit of jazz. It¡¯s a way of thinking shared by everyone who enjoys jazz.¡± The spirit of jazz is an integral part of the festival. If staff members who are full of the spirit of jazz prepare the performances, their efforts are relayed to the performers who, in turn, send that energy to the audience. This energy then returns to the staff. That¡¯s why the Jarasum Jazz Festival has been able to keep going for 20 years.

Expanding on Success

The Jarasum Jazz Festival has made JJ recognizable to many people. The festival is what they know him for, and now he¡¯s even a professor. He has a mixed relationship with jazz: It gives him a hard time, but also makes him happy. Despite the complexity of the relationship, JJ is still entranced with the mysterious attractiveness of the jazz spirit. These days, he is making efforts to spread the jazz spirit of Jarasum even more broadly. ¡°I¡¯m considering food and beverage and even accommodation businesses on Jarasum. I¡¯ll also be making an alternative school for music and the arts. I want to expand the opportunities for people who want to learn music to experience it, even if it¡¯s out of the regular education system. The school will teach students to respect and show consideration to each other, just like what the jazz spirit teaches us to do. The school will begin recruiting students starting this fall.¡±
Upon meeting JJ, it was easy to see that a person who genuinely loves and enjoys something is illuminated with that energy. That kind of person is at the heart of the Jarasum Jazz Festival, which is yet another reason to look forward to next year¡¯s festival.