When Canadian Ian Chiasson and Englishman Patrick Connor first told people they were planning a free rock concert in a park in Seoul, nobody thought it would happen.

They sought sponsors and applied for one of the grants Seoul City offers to foreign groups for cultural activities, but Chiasson said they were seen as overambitious.

“When we were starting out nobody wanted to help us because they thought it was a stupid idea ― it was too big, it’s two foreigners doing it, you’re not going to be able to pull it off,” Chiasson said. “But it’s gonna happen.”

With a few weeks to go, they are putting the final touches to the Rockdo concert on Yeouido’s floating stage on Sept. 8.

The festival has been largely paid for by fundraising concerts in Hongdae. They have attracted some sponsorship, and help from Korean crowd-funding site Bonastage, where people can pledge funds in return for tickets to the after-party in Hongdae, T-shirts and other things, depending on the amount.

The concert will feature the Korean and expat bands that played in the fundraisers from 1-9 p.m. They include Vidulgi Ooyoo, ynot?, The Used Cassettes and Angry Bear, the band to which Chiasson and Connor Belong.

They have had a good response from the Korean scene, Chiasson said.

“Some of the bands have really helped out with pushing the word, whether (on) Facebook or (at) other concerts, and just little things like putting posters up in clubs,” he explained, adding that Korean rockers ynot? had asked to play after finding out about the project.

The two have been organizing shows in Seoul for about two years, starting from when they held a small festival in Hongdae. Other shows included bringing in a band from the Basque Country and Double Trouble events, which put an expat band alongside a Korean band.

“Korean rock concerts tend to end quite early, and then you often have the foreign bands come in and play to the foreigner crowd,” Chiasson said. “What we tried to do is have a foreign band and a Korean band switch places.”

The idea was to use the time changes to get Korean bands and foreign bands to share audiences.

“There’s so many people doing things in Seoul and it feels like two different teams, and we want to bridge that gap.”

The idea of connecting the Korean and expat scenes is important to them, Chiasson said, and was a big part of their hopes for Rockdo.

“The next step was to try to do a festival in a park because it hasn’t been done, at least not that we know of in recent years in Seoul,” said Chiasson. “And the shows in Seoul are very expensive, especially for Korean bands, they’re about 20,000 won or 30,000 won.”

They have also been advertising in Korean and getting some Korean press attention.

“A lot of expat events are advertised only in English and Korean events are only advertised in Korean. Not that that’s bad, but a lot of people miss out because of the language barrier,” said Chiasson, who is already hoping for a second concert.

“Of course we want this to happen next year and the year after,” he said. “It was a lot of money and a lot of hard work but if we do it next year it will be so much easier.”

For more information on the concert, search for the event’s Facebook page or visit the website www.rockdoseoul.com.

By Paul Kerry (paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)