I am only a month delayed. What’s going on? It has been a month since 2016 ended and I think we can all say that 2016 ended in style with these music festivals. Hosted by the 3 major South Korean broadcasting companies, these festivals celebrate the year that has gone past by inviting some of the biggest acts in 2016. The stages are usually different from the ones that we see throughout the year and new collaborations are formed for these stages. For example, at the KBS music festival, we saw Twice, Red Velvet, GFriend and I.O.I come together and cover Into The New World by SNSD (as shown in the image above). While this post doesn’t cover every single stage for each of the three festivals, it will cover my favourite ones.

SBS Gayo Daejun – 26th December 2016

• The Korean Girl Group and Boy Group Spectacular Dance Performances were my most favourite stages of the night. For the girl groups stage: Cosmic Girls, CLC, Laboum, Gugudan, Momoland and DIA featured. For the boy groups stage: Pentagon, SF9, KNK, Snuper, Halo and Astro performed. While each group got a few seconds, they all did a great job and with everyone else dancing along in the background, it looked really cool. (Watch the Girl Groups Perform Here)
• Seventeen was praised for their cover of famous songs sung by female artists. And I too thought they did a pretty good job. It would have been nice to see a longer performance of Boom Boom and have the covers as a separate stage, but it a long show and some groups will have to face cuts. (Watch Seventeen’s Performance Here)
• Mamamoo performed You’re The Best and Decalcomanie and I love the launch into Decalcomanie. What made it even better were their ad-libs, by sliding in big boy group’s names into their song. Sure it did sound odd at firs, but it is cute and it brought smiles to fan’s faces. (Watch Mamamoo’s Performance Here)
• Uhm Jung Hwa made her return to the stage at the SBS Gayo this year, performing a few of her songs. The highlight was most likely D.I.S.C.O, which had T.O.P return to collaborate with her. While I liked D.I.S.C.O’s stage, it was unnecessary for T.O.P to do a model walk out onto the stage. (Watch Uhm Jung Hwa and T.O.P’s performance here)
• Infinite (and Sistar) did get the short end of the stick for the lengths of their performance. But what Infinite delivered looked, as always, beyond infinity.
• Big Bang‘s mini concert. I don’t think we need to say much here! Amazing as always. (Watch Big Bang’s Performance Here)

KBS Gayo Daechukje – 29th December 2016

• Red Velvet, Twice, GFriend and I.O.I’s collaboration with their individual songs, along with their cover of Into The New World was amazing. Loved the Irene memes, though. (Watch the collaboration here)
• Mamamoo’s sexy twist for You’re The Best and rock twist for Decalcomanie were jaw-dropping. (Watch Mamamoo’s Performance Here)
• The girl’s version of Infinite’s Be Mine and the boy’s version of Good Girl Bad Girl by Miss A was a great collaboration. I did laugh when I saw the guys perform and the girls looked really cool. Both stages were amazing. (Watch the girl’s performance and the boy’s performance here)
• I personally loved the slower remix of L.I.E by EXID. It did lack the powerhouse vocals since Solji is on hiatus, but Hyerin did a good job covering for her here and on the other stages (particularly the MBC Gayo stage) (Watch EXID’s Performance Here)
• Ken’s performance with his mother made me cry. Nayeon’s performance with her mother just didn’t leave that same impression on me. (Watch Ken’s Performance and Nayeon’s Performance here)
• NCT Dream, Cosmic Girls, Astro, Laboum, UP10TION and Oh My Girl’s stage was pretty good as well. I think they could have picked a better collaboration song. Something to get the blood pumping and the party started, you know what I mean? (Watch this collaboration performance here)
• Han Dong Geun’s stage sounded amazing. I loved the ballad when it started peaking on the charts and still love its swaying rhythms to this day. (Watch Han Dong Guen Here)
• BTS’s Fire stage. They know what is up. Always amazing when they invite their thousands of backup dancers to join the party. Fits the song perfectly. (Watch BTS’s Performance here)

MBC Gayo Daejejun – 31st December 2016

• MBC Gayo Daejejun brought back some of the first generation KPOP groups such as Shinhwa, S.E.S, Turbo and Ha Hyun Woo. They performed some of their past hits but also more recent songs. (Watch Shinhwa’s Performance here)
• Not only that but some of the big name groups in the industry at the moment performed their past hits and also their 2016 songs. And of course, some groups did special stages, performing very popular and famous Korean songs.
• Once again, Mamamoo made it onto this list as well. Their stage is always exceptional and I love the mini orchestra intro for Decalcomanie. (Watch Mamamoo’s Performance Here)
• Sistar’s I Like That stage here was amazing as well. I loved the dance break. It got rid of that awkward “I’m So Fine” bridge and they look sexy. (Watch Sistar’s Performance here)
• APINK’s short medley of their hits tracks and Only One was spectacular to listen to. The medley led into Only One perfectly. (Watch APINK’s Performance Here)
• Monsta X’s All In + Fighter stage was another really good stage. It looked cool and very tough. They just needed a few more seconds as I felt the stage ended a little too soon. (Watch Monsta X’s Performance here)
• BTOB’s change up for I’ll Be Your Man was really cool. They kept the song whole but added a few extra ad-libs and harmony parts to make it feel fresh. (Watch BTOB’s performance here)
• B.A.P’s performance had an amazing remix for Young Wild and Free. Skydive was shortened but had a cool dance break inserted into it. Daehyun’s adlib was extraordinary. (Watch B.A.P’s performance here)