▲ Musical “Sunfish” opened the 7th Daegu International Musical Festival (DIMF) ⓒ IIJournal |
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DIMF, New Growth Engine for Korean Musicals
Daegu International Musical Festival (DIMF), the only and largest musical festival in Asia is catching the world’s eyes. Started in the 2006 as pre-DIMF, this year marks the 8th anniversary of the event, hosted by Daegu local government and arranged by Daegu International Musical Festival Corporation. At the 1st DIMF, the festival invited 6 musicals including “Ilpasanjo”, a Chinese musical, and staged 5 musicals created by Korean writers and 15 musicals performed by college students. The event also included other programs such as dating with musical actor/actress, highlight concert, and special lecture on musicals.
▲ 1st DIMF Poster, 1st DIMF was well-received by people with various programs and performances. ⓒ IIJournal |
Since 2006, DIMF was held every June or July all around Daegu and has evolved since then. Thanks to these changes in 2012 it was selected by the Ministry of Administration and Security as “best practice for globalizing local brands” and received due recognition for its potential to become a global event. Daegu local government signed a deal with the DIMF Corporation and has been developing DIMF into a musical tour program.
Over the past 7 years DIMF featured musicals created by Korean writers and performances by college students and invited famous foreign musicals. By staging college students’ musicals, the festival gave young students with various opportunities and also attracted Daegu citizens.
▲ College Students perform “Rent”, “Oh! While you were sleeping”, and “Catch me if you can” ⓒ IIJournal |
Before the 8th DIMF, 2014 Creative Musical International Symposium was held. Musical experts from China, Korea, and Japan gathered at the event and shared opinions on the current Korean musical market and how to globalize Korean musicals. DIMF has put efforts in laying the foundation to finance and support for creating musicals.
Likewise, the most noticeable work in DIMF is how it finances the creation of new musicals. Financing and making friendly environment for musical writers is the most important thing for attracting general public into musical theaters. Supporting writers and building infrastructure is the utmost part to make world-class musicals. DIMF and Daegu musical market recognize importance of such infrastructure, with rapidly growing musical industry over the 7 years.
▲ “Flowers of Love” winner of the 7th DIMF, “Look at me” won Creative Musical Award. And a scene from the “Columbus-Runway Project”, a talent training program. ⓒ IIJournal |
“Flowers of Love”, a musical created by a Daegu company (MAC Theatre) won the first prize in the 2013 7th DIMF. “Columbus-Runway Project” is a talent training program provided by DIMF and Korea Creative Content Agency to nurture professionals in the musical industry. It adopts an incubating system in developing talents, which is called DIMF Musical Seed, and tries to expand it into a practical and effective program. Staging college students’ musicals provides chances to develop new actors and actresses. Likewise, DIMF is focusing on carrying out developing an environment for creating musicals.
DIMF, Bridgehead Between People and Culture
DIMF has includes various programs including musical performances. DIMFringe offers many different performances in the downtown of Daegu. At the DIMF Musical Experience zone, people can experience the musical industry such as making small-sized stages and dolls. Special musical lectures are also prepared.
▲ DIMF provides various programs and events for people including DIMFringe, Mom is the Dancing Queen, Dating with Musical Actor/Actress, Pre-festival event, and DIMF Awards. ⓒ IIJournal |
Unlike Seoul and other capital areas which have enough theatres and production environment, Daegu lacked such facilities before DIMF events, so Daegu citizens had limited access to musicals. However, DIMF promoted growth of the musical industry by providing various and wide selections of performances and allowing people to enjoy musicals.
2014 8th DIMF will be held from June 27th to July 14th in Daegu.
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DIMF Pioneersin the Buildingof Musical Infrastructure in Korea
취재 : 이현정, 조민정 yeu3030@naver.com
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