Itaewon ready to be filled with buskers this weekend

Left hard hit by the spread of COVID-19, streets of the Itaewon area in Yongsan District, central Seoul, will come back to allow buskers to perform starting from this weekend. The district authorities announced on Thursday that they will open a street event titled “Back to Normal with Piano Busking.”

Piano busking events are to be held for four times over the weekend between Friday and next Sunday to help promote tourism in the Itaewon Special Tourist Zone. Yongsan District will have 15 pianos installed in 11 locations on the streets of the Itaewon area that starts from Noksapyeong Station Square to Itaewon Station Gate No. 2. Any visitor wandering around this area during the period in question can have a chance to play the piano on the streets.

Professional pianists are ready in the lineup to perform solo piano recitals (Chopin: Nocturnes, Mendelssohn: Rondo capriccioso and Studio Ghibli Animation OST Medley); piano concertos (Scott Joplin: Ragtime and Offenbach: Cancan); piano-vocal duet songs (Quando me'n vo); and so on.

Yongsan District plans to makes sure to observe quarantine guidelines on face mask-wearing and hand sanitization by dispatching staffs on the streets during the busking event period.

“The upcoming street performances will add excitement and fun to visitors to the area this winter,” Mayor Sung Jang-hyun of Yongsan District said. “The authorities will hold a variety of music events to bring a buzz and vigor back to stores and restaurants across the district, which have had a hard time surviving the COVID-19 pandemic.


Seng-Hyun Kang byhuman@donga.com