– Gyeonggi Province Will Host “R-16 Korea Sparkling, Gyeonggi 2008”, the World’s Biggest B-Boy Contest –

Gyeonggi Province will host a B-boy contest to select the world-‘s best B-boy team.
On March 18 2008, Gyeonggi Province (Governor Kim Moon-soo) and the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization (President Lim Byeong-su) announced that “R-16 Korea Sparkling, Gyeonggi 2008”, the world’s biggest B-boy contest, will be held in the cities of Suwon and Seongnam.
The contest will be jointly hosted by the Korea Tourism Organization and the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization. Winners will be selected through a tournament.
The elimination contest to select the national team that will participate in the finals of “R-16 Korea Sparkling, Gyeonggi 2008” will be held in the concert hall of the Seongnam Art Center at 6:00 PM on March 29, 2008. Auditions will be held early in the day, and the 16 teams selected through the auditions will have crew battles in a tournament. Applications will be accepted at the official website of R-16, www.r16korea.com, from March 14.
As the concert hall of the Seongnam Art Center only accommodates 800 visitors, and visitors will be admitted for free on a first-come-first-served basis, even those who hold tickets are recommended to arrive at the event site early to ensure their entry to the hall. Tickets are downloadable from the official website, www.r16korea.com.
This tournament for selection of the national team for “R-16 Korea Sparkling, Gyeonggi 2008” is expected to be fiercely competitive. In order to provide equal opportunities to all B-boys in Korea, the contest is open to amateur as well as professional B-boy teams.
The final winner of the contest will participate in the final selection with Rivers Crew, the winner of the 2007 contest. There will be a fierce competition for the final selection between the 16 renowned teams; this includes Drifterz, which was the second-place winner at the 2007 contest, Gambler, which is an award-winning team at various international B-boy contests, T.I.P, which won the 2007 UK B-boy championship, and T.G Breakers, which took third place at the 2007 R-16 Contest.
In order to ensure fairness in the selection of the national B-boy team of Korea, which is gaining global recognition as a B-boy powerhouse, world-renowned B-boys Alieness, Ivan, and Kert David, who have extensive experience in screening international B-boy contests, were invited to assist in the selection process.
The final selection for “R-16 Korea Sparkling, Gyeonggi 2008” will be held at the Suwon World Cup Stadium in Gyeonggi Province from May 31 to June 1, 2008, and the top 16 teams from 15 nations, including 2 Korean teams, will participate in the event and compete for the world championship in 2 categories, Performance and Battle. The final competition will be broadcast globally for 200 hours by KBS N and Eurovision, two pioneers in B-boy broadcasting.
The Gyeonggi Tourism Organization will provide a wide range of auxiliary events, including concerts, freestyle circles, and a city culture gallery, where graffiti works and photos will be exhibited during the final competition period to induce the participation of visitors. The organization also plans to attract foreign tourists by launching packaged and individual tourism products.
An official from the organization said, “Hosting an international contest is a golden opportunity to attract domestic and foreign tourists. As there are few competing international contests in the first half of this year, we expect to successfully host this event through aggressive marketing that targets tourists with a special interest in B-boy culture.”