Korea-UAE Festival: Mamamoo, Astro and more to perform online K-pop concert

The online-only event will run from March 21 to April 4 featuring trade shows and an online performance

K-pop girl group Mamamoo will perform during the UAE-Korean Festival. Courtesy Rainbowbridge World

Update: The K-pop Festival online concert has been postponed from April 2 to April 4 at 7pm, following the death of Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance.

After being vastly postponed last year, the UAE’s Ministry of Culture and Youth and South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism have announced the Korea-UAE Festival will return in 2021.

The three-day event will run entirely online and consist of two parts: The K-Content Festival, which aims to match buyers from the UAE with different Korean cultural content creators and the K-pop Festival, which will be an online concert.

The event is to run from March 31 to April 1 and on April 4.

The K-Content Festival, which takes place on March 31 and April 1, features Korean companies in the gaming, comics, VR and AR content sectors participating in virtual business meetings and consultations. It's only open to registered businesses.

However, the K-pop concert will be open to all. The event will feature K-pop acts such as NCT Dream, Mamamoo, Astro, Big, The Boyz and Aespa, as well as Emirati opera singer Fatima Al Hashmi, who will perform on a virtual stage. The gig can be streamed from the Korean Culture Centre's YouTube page on Sunday, April 4 at 7pm. The date has been postponed by two days because of the death of Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance.

In 2019, the two countries agreed to designate 2020 as the year of culture dialogue. As part of an agreement to strengthen cultural ties between the two countries, last year’s event was supposed to the mark the 40th anniversary of the established relationship between the two sides.

"Despite the difficulties caused by Covid-19, this event will create a future-oriented cultural community between the two countries and expand cultural exchanges across the Arab world," said Hwang Hee, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism for the Republic of Korea.

"Beyond the Hallyu, we will make it an opportunity for true ‘cultural convergence' between Korea and UAE."