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Busan STEP UP Dance Festival July 4-7
haps Magazine Korea
July 5, 2024
(Image: YouTube screenshot)
The 2024 Busan STEP UP Dance Festival will be held for four days from July 4th to 7th at the Busan Cinema Center, among other venues.
Aligned with Busan’s “2nd Youth Policy Basic Plan” announced last March, which aims to create a vibrant city for young people full of hope, the festival integrates ‘street dance’ as its flagship youth cultural content.
This year, the event has been rebranded from ‘Busan Dance Festival’ to ‘2024 Busan STEP UP Dance Festival’.
Participants can engage in two formats: individuals can compete in the ‘World Street 1on1 Battle’, while groups can vie for the ‘Dance Performance World Championship’.
The ‘World Street 1on1 Battle’ is open to young people aged 18 to 39, with no genre restrictions, and will take place through offline competitions. The ‘Dance Performance World Championship’ will feature around 30 teams that pass through the online qualifiers competing in offline finals.
As part of the side events, classes such as the ‘Global Street Dance Class’ for applicants and the newly introduced ‘Junior Street Championship’ will also be held.
To ensure fairness, the festival has assembled renowned judges from the dance community, including ‘Bada’ from the winning team of SWUFA 2, ‘Bata’ from the runner-up team of SMANPA, ‘Akkanen’ from the leader of SWUFA 2, ‘J-REX’ from the choreographer of idol group NCT, and ‘Calvin’ from the leader of the 2024 winning team of VIBE Stories.
Winners of this year’s event will receive a total prize of 33 million KRW, with the ‘World Street 1on1 Battle’ champion awarded 10 million KRW, the ‘Dance Performance World Championship’ winner receiving 15 million KRW, the runner-up team getting 5 million KRW, and the ‘Junior Street Championship’ winner receiving 2 million KRW, and the runner-up receiving 1 million KRW.