A song for Asia

The Asia Song Festival - South Korea's biggest event - puts on its sixth edition on September 19 at Sangam World Cup Stadium in Seoul and this year GMM Grammy is handing over representation responsibilities to Thailand's other major label, RS Public.

Waving the flag will be K-Otic, the five-member boy band featuring Panu "Pop" Jirakun, Wisawa "Tomo" Thaiyanont, Pathradanai "Koen" Setsuwan, Jongbae Park and Kenta Tsujiya. The group was nominated for the MTV Asia Awards in 2008 and has two studio albums to its credit.

"We are very proud to be representing Thailand at one of the biggest festivals in Asia. We've been rehearsing our remixed songs," says Pop.

"For me, taking part in the festival is a dream come true," adds Jongbae, the band's only Korean member who's planning on taking his bandmates on a tour of his hometown.

ASF, a unique pop-culture festival and free concert, has attracted increasing attention, pulling in more than 25,000 foreign tourists. Last year, 4,000 foreigners came to South Korea to watch the show and, according to the festival website, more than 5,000 visitors are expected this year.

Up for awards

Nine Asian countries are sending acts, with Big Bang, Super Junior and Girls' Generation representing the host country and Gackt and mihimaru GT coming from Japan. Other big names include Chris Lee (China), Show Luo (Taiwan), Ekin Cheng (Hong Kong), Ho Ngoc Ha (Vietnam) and Agnes Monica (Indonesia) who, along with K-Otic, are in competition for the Best Asian Artist Award .

Korea's 2NE1 is up for Best New Asian Artist Award and Ruslana from the Ukraine is nominated for the Special Award. Japan's V6 are the special guests.

 GOING FOR A SONG

>> The Asia Song Festival is a part of a package tour being offered by Happy Korea from September 16 to 20.

>> Call (080) 808 6796, (086) 305 1469, and (086) 308 6786 or visit www.HappyToKorea.com.

 >> On the Web: |www.ASF.or.kr.