The Chiyoda Music Festival
"A music festival? '...A music festival?'"
Suyun twirled a strand of her hair. If they had said "festival," she would have understood, but a "music festival" (ongakusai)? To think it was just the same thing with a different name... the way the other party emphasized the word "music festival" suggested otherwise.
"Yes. A music festival."
"Excuse me, but what is the difference between a festival and a music festival?"
"Hmm... I suppose you wouldn't know about our music festivals. Have you heard of the Chiyoda Music Festival?"
Suyun shook her head.
The live house owner looked at Suyun and the other members with an expression that said, Ah, so I have to explain from the very beginning? He scratched his head and began to explain.
"Do you know about SummerStage?"
The question brought a certain event to Suyun's mind. A highly prestigious festival that a non-profit organization had been hosting in Central Park for decades without charging any admission fee.
"Do you mean the Central Park SummerStage?"
"Yes, that's the one. A Japanese musician saw that and created the Chiyoda Music Festival. Completely free admission. Non-profit. It's an event funded entirely through crowdfunding and corporate sponsors. I happen to have some connections with the organizers, and I'd like to invite you all."
The live house owner squared his shoulders slightly as he spoke.
Suyun fell into thought. Non-profit, huh... Whenever she heard those words, one specific concern always came to mind.
"Excuse me, but since it's free..."
"Ah! Are you worried about that? Don't worry. Performance fees are paid properly. Though, of course, I don't know the exact amount."
Suyun twirled her hair again as she listened. A music festival. Setting aside whether it was good or bad, or whether it was worth going to, she currently knew absolutely nothing about the Chiyoda Music Festival—its scale, how it was organized, or what it even was. It was impossible to give a positive answer, but she couldn't just reject it either. Thus, she decided to postpone her decision.
"Um... for now. Hyun-ah, could you talk to him? Tell him we're interested, but we have an agency, and we need to discuss it with them first, so we can't make an immediate decision."
Upon hearing Hyun-ah's translation, the live house owner looked slightly surprised. He seemed taken aback that they didn't immediately jump at the offer.
"Uh... well, I understand. But we have to finalize the lineup in a few days, so please let me know as soon as possible."
"How soon is 'as soon as possible'?"
"Within two days? I'll need an answer by noon the day after tomorrow at the latest. I have to contact them on my end as well."
The live house owner answered Hyun-ah's question. Handing over his business card and saying he would wait for their call, he turned and left. Watching his retreating figure, Suyun felt a slight pang of guilt... but decided she would have to make Manager Jung work overtime tonight.
"Did you say... the Chiyoda Music Festival?!"
"Yes. That's what they called it."
"The Chiyoda Music Festival... Is it the same one I'm thinking of? Hold on, let me look it up!"
Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—Manager Jung answered the phone immediately. When asked what she was doing, she gave a depressing confession that she was already working overtime. Hearing this, Suyun thought, Wait, does supporting our band really require that much overtime?
Of course, it didn't. Like most small-to-medium enterprises—or rather, most companies in general—no one worked on just one single task. Manager Jung wasn't just in charge of supporting Group Sound; she was also handling duties for the company's new platform, Munica. In a way, overtime was practically inevitable.
"Are you very busy?"
Suyun asked, looking at Manager Jung's hollow, exhausted face. It was quite late in the evening, right after their live house performance. It wasn't exactly the kind of question to ask when you've just barged in at this hour to dump more work on someone, but when the person asking is the company's flagship artist and the owner's daughter, the rules are a bit different.
"Am I... busy...? Ahaha..."
Manager Jung let out a hollow chuckle. Through years of experience, she knew that no matter what she said, she would end up doing the work anyway. Besides, she knew Suyun herself would go straight back to their lodgings and practice her guitar all night...
"Anyway, the owner's reaction was a bit strange. It was like, *How could you not accept this immediately?*"
"Hmm... looking at this, I think his reaction makes perfect sense!"
Saying this, Manager Jung pulled up a webpage. Looking at the screen, Suyun agreed that the live house owner had every right to react that way.
The Chiyoda Music Festival. An event started by a Japanese musician who one day thought, What if we held a music festival that as many people as possible could enjoy? Despite the seemingly simple concept and name, the status the Chiyoda Music Festival held today was incredibly high.
As of 2025, its crowdfunding campaign raised 50 million yen. It drew approximately 300,000 visitors over three days, with around 500,000 broadcast viewers. It was featured dozens of times on television, newspapers, and radio, and generated thousands of online articles.
Its sponsors included heavyweights like Asahi, Glico, Mitsui Fudosan, ESP, Shure, JASRAC, and Yamaha—a lineup of prestigious corporate giants perfectly fitting for a true "festival" scale.
And most importantly...
"It's a highly mainstream, public event!"
The day after Suyun had dumped the task on her, Manager Jung gathered the members of Group Sound and held a briefing on the Chiyoda Music Festival, with Team Leader Ko joining via video call. With the details laid bare, Suyun and the band finally understood the live house owner's reaction.
He had offered them a chance to perform at such a massive event, and they had hesitated. Even if there were business matters to consider, to him, it must have looked like they were kicking away a golden opportunity.
"For reference, the Fuji Rock Festival gets about 120,000 attendees! Of course, Fuji Rock is a paid event and isn't the easiest place to get to, so it's not a direct comparison, but..."
"Still, 300,000 people is on a completely different level."
"Exactly! Of course, just because we're participating doesn't mean we'll be on the main stage performing in front of all 300,000 people!"
With that, Manager Jung flipped to the next slide of the presentation. It showed a map of the park where the festival would take place. There were seven stages set up utilizing plazas, buildings, and music halls. The areas she pointed to were the Third, Fourth, and Fifth stages... locations that felt somewhat removed from the main action.
"I contacted the live house owner and had him speak with the organizers! It's not set in stone yet, but we'll likely be assigned to one of those stages!"
Suyun twirled her hair at that. While it wasn't a prime location, it was only natural. Even if Group Sound's recognition was steadily growing, it was still strictly confined to a niche crowd. Aside from Ha Suyun herself, who had gained a tiny bit of fame as a guitarist, the band Group Sound's public recognition was practically zero. In fact, for a band in their very first year of activity, even getting onto a stage like this was a miracle.
"Well, you can't expect to be full from the first bite..."
"Precisely! And actually, this music festival is a bit unique! The main stage requires reservations, so the audience size there is limited, whereas the lower-tier stages apparently get much more foot traffic! So, in terms of actual passersby, our stage might actually have more potential viewers!"
"So, we're participating?"
A slightly distorted voice crackled from the tablet that had been quietly sitting on the table. At Team Leader Ko's question, Manager Jung hesitated for a moment before speaking as if she had made up her mind.
"Yes! If the band is okay with it, I absolutely want us to participate in this! And..."
"We're fine with it. Is anyone here unavailable?"
"If we said we were busy, would you actually not go?"
"Of course not."
After replying to Seoha, Suyun waited for Manager Jung to continue. She could tell the manager had something else she wanted to say. Sure enough, Manager Jung hesitated slightly before speaking again.
"And my thought is... well, before that! We need to look at the demographic distribution of this event!"
The next slide of the presentation displayed a pie chart. Though there were slight variations, it showed a remarkably balanced distribution overall. Teens, twenties, thirties, forties, fifties... male, female. The values were all fairly even.
"This is the data released by the organizers! As you can see, the 'all-ages target' we've been aiming for back in Korea is already fully realized at this event!"
"Indeed. Even for a free event, having such an even age distribution is quite rare. It seems their marketing was highly effective."
"Exactly! And that's where my idea comes in... Suyun, by any chance, how far along are the new songs for the concept you've been working on?"
"The new songs?"
Suyun twirled her hair. It wasn't out of fluster, but rather because she hadn't expected that topic to come up here. As for the progress of the new songs... the skeletal structures of most of them were already complete. All that was left was to polish them, record them, and then fine-tune the details.
"There are a few that aren't quite there yet, but most of them are about sixty to seventy percent finished."
"The reason I ask is... both you and our team spent a lot of time agonizing over the band's concept recently, right? Even though we finally decided on one!"
"Which means..."
Hearing Manager Jung's words, Suyun realized what she was getting at. An event where all age groups gathered, with massive foot traffic. A festival attended by everyone from hardcore music lovers to random passersby who just stopped to see what was going on...
"I think you've already guessed it... yes! What if we perform some of the new songs on the festival stage?"
It was indeed the perfect testing ground, Suyun thought. She was genuinely surprised she hadn't thought of it herself.
"I think that's a great idea."
"Really? That's a relief!"
Manager Jung replied, but then her face suddenly darkened as if she had just remembered something. Suyun looked at her, wondering what was wrong.
"Ah, now that I think about it, I wonder if it's even possible with your schedule. Composing the songs, practicing them, polishing them to performance level, and putting together a setlist... the time..."
"You had me worried for a second. We just have to practice. Don't worry about that."
"Yeon-soo, aren't you going to worry about us?"
"Save me..."
"Actually, just killing us might be more merciful."
With those reassuring words, Suyun put Manager Jung's worries to rest. However, those very words plunged three other people into deep despair. Three people who knew exactly what Suyun meant by "just practice." But what could they do? This was the path they had chosen. As they say, where there is light, there is shadow; you cannot only choose the good parts of life.
"Ah, this is a real headache."
Inside a bustling office where people were constantly moving back and forth, a balding man muttered to himself, a pen clamped between his teeth. A woman sitting next to him responded.
"What's wrong?"
"Ah, there's a band that was recently added to the lineup. Introduced by... who was it from that shopping district association? Anyway, they were recommended by the owner of Live House Rui."
"He made a recommendation?"
"He did. Their music is actually quite good, and they've been generating some buzz lately. I asked Kitani-san, and he said they were solid. So I accepted them for now, but the problem is..."
As he spoke, he circled two stages on a map of the park. One was on the outskirts of the park, close to the road, and the other was a slightly wider stage deeper inside. Neither was a main stage, but each had its own pros and cons.
"I just can't decide which one to give them."