Early next month, the Jeonju International Sori Festival runs for five days around the Sori Arts Center of Jeollabuk-do in Jeonju. With pansori at the center, music from various regions of the world and stages by young DJs have been programmed over the same period.
A sori drum is made by stretching cowhide over a wooden barrel. Laying bare the grain of a hoarse, cracked voice is the vocal method of pansori.
The world music stages place the rhythms of other regions alongside pansori. It is a lineup in which different tunings and different beats collide within one arena.
The young DJs' stages are built mainly around electronic sound. Audiences who came to hear a full-length pansori performance and audiences who came for the DJ stages move back and forth across the same festival grounds.
Should traditional performance be preserved as it is, or should it be opened up to today's audiences. Because the programming does not gloss over this question, the festival carries friction with it each year. Those who want to preserve the original form worry that pansori is consumed as background music for other genres. On the other side, the view is that if young audiences do not come in, no one will be left to preserve the original form either.
Jeonju is a city that made its name with sound. The festival is an annual event that seeks to keep that name from remaining only in tourism copy.
Getting there is not difficult. The area around the arts center is the festival grounds, so several stages can be reached on foot in a single day. The program for each session and how to attend will be announced by the festival organizers in line with the performance schedule.
The festival ends after five days. Anyone who wants to hear it in person can go to Jeonju in early September.
Event information
Date: Five days in early September 2026
Venue: Around the Sori Arts Center of Jeollabuk-do, Jeonju
