Rock out on Rockdo

Come noon on Sept. 8, the coolest concert in Korea will kick off on Seoul’s Yeouido Floating Island with a kick-ass lineup that includes No Respect For Beauty, Love X Stereo, Angry Bear, Magna Fall and more. 

It’s called Rockdo, and it’s free. 

Organizing this endeavor was never going to be easy for Exit Six, a smallish local concert promoter. Some bands, managers and clubs didn’t want to join or help. It was mostly about money, of course, or them not knowing what Exit Six was. “I guess it looked like a pretty large endeavor for a very small promotions team,” a spokesperson said. 

Rockdo has been in the works for about a year. Exit Six has been putting on regular shows since last winter to raise money to make sure Rockdo would be free for all in attendance. “Basically, we want to do a few things,” said the promoter.

“We want to showcase Seoul's best music for free. Concerts these days are expensive. Also, most shows happen in Hongdae. We want to help expand where bands can play and their audience. Some people don’t like going to clubs. Rockdo is on the river, during the day. “Another thing Rockdo is focusing on is trying to integrate expat and Korean audiences, as well as expat and Korean bands.”

Exit Six has been organizing shows for about two years now. They started with small club festivals before moving on to other showcases. They even helped bring over a band from Basque Country. Something like Rockdo seemed like the next step. 

“We love music. Also, it hasn't been done before. Why not?” they explained. There will be a very diverse line up.  Hard rock, punk, instrumental, indie rock — mostly bands. They are expecting more than 300 people. Exit Six said concertgoers are not the only ones that will benefit. Bands get more exposure, so “the musicians will hopefully gain a larger audience. Of course we hope their fans come to watch but again, but we also expect people that don't enjoy going to clubs all the time will come out to see these bands in a different setting. Also, some of the foreign audience might see a local band that they have never seen or before and vice versa.”

More info

More information on the floating stage: Click here

For a map and directions: Click here

Festival website: Click here