South Korean concert club suspended for two months over audience dancing
In Busan, South Korea, the small concert club Ovantgarde was suspended for two months after district officials recorded audience members dancing during a live performance. The Korea Herald reports this. The venue violated provisions of the Food Sanitation Act that prohibit visitors from dancing in general-type restaurants equipped with sound and lighting equipment.
Restaurants instead of concert venues
Ovantgarde opened in 2018 in the Daeyeon-dong area of Nam-gu, Busan. Many small music venues in the country register as restaurants in order to sell food and alcohol during concerts, an important source of revenue for their operations.
A representative of one club in Seoul's Mapo district noted that ticket sales do not always make it possible to sustain a venue, particularly when young or lesser-known musicians perform on stage. Due to the current rules, some concert clubs warn visitors not to dance or post relevant notices.
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The ban on dancing was introduced in 2015 to restrict establishments that effectively operated as nightclubs but were registered as restaurants. Nightclubs and other venues subject to the relevant rules pay individual consumption and education taxes, which together amount to 13% of revenue from food and beverages.
The problem of legal status
Registration as a performance venue could exempt clubs from restrictions on dancing, but this requires holding performances for at least 90 days a year or for 30 consecutive days. In addition, venues must meet safety and facility requirements, which may be too costly for small independent clubs. Even after such registration, food and beverages cannot be sold in the same space as concerts.
Local regulations allow dancing in restaurants in eight districts across the country: four districts of Seoul, one district of Busan, two districts of Gwangju, and Jung-gu district in Ulsan. At the same time, the live music fans' association Rockjangnol submitted a proposal to the parliamentary Committee on Culture, Sports and Tourism to amend the Food Sanitation Act and introduce a separate registration category for small music venues.
