The heat wave and summer holidays are just around the corner. This year, Why not go to ‘Keochang International Festival of Theater' (KIFT) for a change? You can enjoy exciting theatrical performances in the midst of cool valley as the plays are held in the beautiful natural environment setting of open theater.
This year marks the 23th Keochang International Festival of Theatre(KIFT) to be held on July 29th(Friday) to August 15th(Monday). KIFT is an international festival of theatre held every summer and at Keochang culture center and open-air theaters of Keochang’s landmark ‘Suseungdae’.
The festival began in October 15, 1989 as ‘the October Theater Festival’ and was aimed at harmonizing the theatrical groups in Gyeongsangnam-do and giving the local theatrical companies a sense of direction. The festival became nationwide on its 5th year in 1993, and developed into an international festical participated by both domestic and foreign theatrical companies on its 7th year in 1995. The festival continues to grow in terms of scale and quality of performances. The festival has been evaluated as an ewemplary ewample of promoting local culture. KIFT attempts to make itself an international theatre festival at par with Festival d'Avignon in France.
The main objective of KIFT is seeking globalization of theater by gathering excellent productions from domestic and foreign theater groups. The festival also aims to provide a venue for theater lovers, contribute to the development of rising theater companies and vitalization of the theatrical performance market while raising cultural awareness at same time. The festival also hopes to promote local tourism and the area's beautiful landscape and sightseeing spots.
This year, a total of thirty seven different teams from nine countries will participate. The plays are classified into three categories: official plays, entries for the national competition, and foreign plays. Fifteen teams from Korea and five teams from five countries are entered as official plays. Fourteen Korea teams will compete in the contest, and three teams will perform in the foreign plays.
On the official program, performances are either labeled as 'KIFT-ON' which means the theater groups or individuals are officially invited as guest performaers by the KIFT executive committe, or 'KIFT-OFF' which means the performers are participating in the festival.
The foreign plays are free of charge, but one has to buy a ticket to watch the official plays and the entried for the national competition. Ticket rices have not been released yet.
To purchase KIFT Sarnag tickets, one has to reserve online at www.sati.or.kr .
Tickets may be bought in advance is until the day before the festival. You can also buy tickets on the day of the performance at ticket booth in Suseungdae. For more details about purchasing tickets in advanse, please check their website at http://kift.or.kr.
To go to the festival from Changwon city, it takes two hours by car, four hours by bus from Changwon Bus terminal, and three hours from Masan Bus terminal. Finding an accommodation is not a problem since the festival provides a camping ground for camping enthusiasts and information is available online, or you can inquire ar the KIFT's Visitor Information Center.

박지민  applemaro@changwon.ac.kr

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