‘Slow Life Slow Live 2022’ heats up Olympic Park

The “Slow Life Slow Live 2022” festival was held at the 88 Garden of Olympic Park, Songpa-Gu, Seoul on Sunday evening. When Anne-Marie, the last performer, wearing a white knee-length shirt, black pants, and black fur hat, showed up on the stage during the intro of “Ciao Adios,” the audience of around 10,000 people let out a huge cheer. “It’s been three years since I was here last time. I missed fans in Korea so much. Fans in Korea make me feel recharged,” the British singer said during her passionate performance, which lasted for 100 minutes from 8:20 p.m. She sang 20 of her best songs, including “2002,” which topped Korea’s streaming charts online, and “Friends.”

For three days starting from Saturday, a total of 15 singers, including foreign pop stars Anne-Marie and LANY, and the top-ranked singers on Korean charts, such as Tones and I, Peder Elias, and Korean singer Lee Hi heated the stage of the festival. U.S. pop singer Lauv, known for “Who” featured by BTS, was on stage as the last performer on Monday.

The atmosphere at the festival was heated up despite the chilly weather. Even though it rained all day with the temperature at around 15 degrees Celsius on Sunday when Anne-Marie performed, people in the audience enjoyed the event in raincoats. Even the seats in the middle where umbrellas were not allowed, were full of fans, including people dancing with a glass of beer or wine in their hand or those lying on the ground getting rained on.

The sound of the crowd singing along was at its peak when Anne-Marie sang her hit song “2002.” Before singing her last song, “FRIENDS,” she further uplifted the atmosphere, saying, “The next song is our last one, and I need all of your voice.” Park Ga-hyung, a female spectator aged 32, enjoyed the concert in the rain. “I have listened to Anne-Marie’s songs for the past week to sing along,” she said. “I got wet in the rain but didn’t even feel cold singing and jumping.”

Australian singer and songwriter Tones and I visited Korea for the first time to join the festival this time and received a fervent response from the audience. He is a talented new singer who swept the top in the music charts of some 30 countries with his second single, “Dance Monkey,” released in 2019. “Korean fans are the best audience I’ve ever met,” the singer told the audience, who cheered for his every little gesture. “I truly want to come back to sing.”


Jae-Hee Kim jetti@donga.com