2025 Busan Stepup Dance Festival: A Global Street Dance Festival Led by Young People
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2025 Busan Stepup Dance Festival: A Global Street Dance Festival Led by Young People
◈ The 2025 Busan Step Up Dance Festival will be held over three days, from May 16 to 18, at the Busan Cinema Center and other locations in the city. Applications are open on the official website until April 7.
◈ New programs include the Busan Representative Selection, alongside the K-POP Cover Dance Championship and the Step Up Concert as side events.
◈ The main event comprises the World Street 1:1 Battle (individual), the Dance Performance World Championship (team), and the Busan Representative Selection. Famous choreographers and artists such as Seven, 5000, Choi Youngjoon, and Renan will serve as judges. A total of 38 million won in prize money will be awarded.
◈ The Random Play Dance, a pre-event, will take place at multiple venues across Busan on weekends between March and May, starting at the Busan Cinema Center on March 23.
□ Busan Metropolitan City, in partnership with the Youth Culture Promotion Association, will host the 2025 Busan Step Up Dance Festival from May 16 to 18, 2025, at the Busan Cinema Center and various locations across the city.
○ Now in its third year, the festival promotes street dancing and lively youth content in line with Busan’s vision of becoming a 'young, hopeful, and dynamic city' under the second youth policy masterplan announced in March 2024.
□ New additions to this year’s festival are:
▲ Main event: Busan Representative Selection
▲ Side event: K-POP Cover Dance Championship, Step Up Concert
▲ Pre-event: small-scale dance competition support.
□ The main event consists of:
▲ World Street 1:1 Battle (individual)
▲ Dance Performance World Championship (group)
▲ Busan Representative Selection, which will identify Busan’s best dancers or teams. Applications are available on the website busanstepupfestival.com until April 7, with online preliminaries taking place beforehand.
○ The World Street 1:1 Battle will be conducted on-site during the festival, composed of three categories—freestyle, hip-hop, and waacking—with offline preliminaries and finals.
○ At the Dance Performance World Championship, the top 15 teams from the online preliminary round judged by a professional panel will compete offline.
○ The newly introduced Busan Representative Selection will bring together young Busan residents. The top 10 teams that pass the online preliminary stage will move on to an offline final.
□ To uphold fairness, celebrated judges will oversee each dance category. Idol artists will also be invited to side events to boost audience engagement.
□ The prize money breakdown is as follows (38 million won in total).
○ World Street 1:1 Battle: 3 million won for each category winner, 1 million won for runner-ups
○ Dance Performance World Championship: 10 million won for first place, 5 million won for second place, 3 million won for third place
○ Busan Representative Selection: 2 million won for the champion
○ Junior Performance Championship & K-POP Cover Dance Championship: 2 million won for winners, 1 million won for runner-ups
□ As a pre-event, the Step Up Random Play Dance will kick off on March 23 at Haeundae Beach Event Square and continue every weekend from March to May across Busan.
○ The schedule may change due to weather conditions.
Detailed event information and registration methods can be found on the official website.
○ Website: https://busanstepupfestival.com/
Pre-Event (1): Random Play Dance
▲ Sunday, March 23: Haeundae Beach Event Square ▲ Sunday, March 30: Oncheoncheon Special Stage ▲ Sunday, April 12: Songdo Beach Youth Square ▲ Sunday, April 20: Seomyeon Car-Free Street ▲ Sunday, May 3: Sajik Sports Complex Outdoor Plaza
○ In particular, a new pre-promotional program will support small-scale competitions in collaboration with local youth. In the battle category, the young dancers’ group Yajeokjang will host the Dancers of Peace (D.O.P) Vol. 6 on April 19 at B.Con Ground in Suyeong-gu. In the performance category, the dance studio franchise Groun_D will hold the Groun_D Competition on April 26 at P.ARK in Yeongdo-gu.
Pre-Event (2): Small-Scale Competition Support
▲ Saturday, April 19: B.Con Ground
▲ Saturday, April 26: P.ARK, Yeongdo-gu
