The newly inaugurated Hyundai Card City Break music festival has brought out the big guns with the announcement on Tuesday of its first-string lineup that includes headline acts Maroon 5 and Psy.

The upcoming rock fest will mark Maroon 5’s third performance in Korea and “Gangnam Style” phenom Psy’s first local performance since his extravagant four-day Christmas concert series last year. 

In only its second year, competing against a number of the country’s highly anticipated large-scale summer rock festivals, this year’s City Break festival promises to bring in more than 30 acts, with its first lineup including American rock guitarist Richie Sambora, U.S. indie-rock band The Neighbourhood and local talents Lee Juck and Nell.

Last year’s inaugural event attracted more than 75,000 rock fans who had the chance to witness world-famous acts Metallica, Muse, Iggy and The Stooges and Limp Bizkit, among others. The next string of lineups will be announced in the months to come. This year’s City Break fest will be held on Aug. 9 and 10 at the Seoul World Cup Stadium.

The annual Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival will be held a week prior to City Break, from Aug. 1-3, with the first-round lineup including the popular English psychedelic-rock band Kasabian, Boys Like Girls and local bands Dear Cloud, PIA and Romantic Punch. 

In its eight-year history, Pentaport has hosted a wide range of notable acts including Korn, Snow Patrol, Hoobastank, Deftones, Placebo and Fall Out Boy. The annual three-day music fest is still one of the nation’s most popular summer rock music events along with the Ansan Valley Rock Festival.

Formerly known as the Jisan Valley Rock Festival, the annual Ansan Valley Rock fest has been canceled this year. The three-day fest relocated its stages to the Daebu Sea Breeze Theme Park in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, last year and in light of the fact that most of the victims in the tragedy were students from Ansan’s Danwon High School, officials at CJ E&M decided to cancel this year’s festivities out of respect for the victims and their families. The 2014 edition of the rock festival was originally scheduled to be held from July 25-27.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)