The excitement is building ahead of the February Winter Games at Pyeongchang ©Getty Images

A number of musical and film events are to mark the countdown to Pyeongchang 2018 falling to just 100 days.

The XXIII Games begin on February 9 and organisers are in no mood to allow the excitement to drop having waited since July 2011 when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded them the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games ahead of bids from Munich, Germany and Annecy, France.

A pop concert will celebrate the arrival of the Olympic torch from Greece at Incheon International Airport. 

Under the theme of “Culture is added in PyeongChang" the concert will feature well-known Korean pop groups like boy bands EXO and BTS, and all-girl groups Twice and Red Velvet.

The Olympism of Five Rings, a musical group comprised of performers from five continents around the world, will present a show on Thursday at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Seoul.

Kristjan Jarvi, an Estonian conductor and composer, who also serves as a member of the Estonian Olympic Committee, and Korea’s Kim Deok-su Samulnori Group will collaborate with musicians from more than ten countries, under the theme of “Resonance of Peace".

Organisers are to host a number of music and film events as the excitement to Pyeongchang 2018 builds with the event just 100 days away ©Korea.net
Organisers are to host a number of music and film events as the excitement to Pyeongchang 2018 builds with the event just 100 days away ©Korea.net


Pyeongchang-gun County, one of the three Olympic host cities, along with Ganggneung and Jeongseon, all in the Gangwon-do Province, will host the 2017 Dream Concert in Pyeongchang on Saturday.

The concert, set to be held at the PyeongChang Olympic Plaza, boasts of a star-studded lineup, including popular boy bands Wanna One,  VIXX and EXO-CBX.

Besides pop concerts, World Cinema Week will run from tomorrow to Sunday at the Cinematheque of the Korean Film Archive in Mapo-gu District, Seoul. 

They will screen a total of 23 films related to sports, selected by 21 countries who will be part of the upcoming Winter Olympic Games.

The annual Seoul Lantern Festival will have a parade of lanterns shaped as the PyeongChang official mascots Soohorang and Bandabi and, also, which represent some of the major Olympic sports. It will run a total of 1.2 km from the Cheonggye Plaza through to the Supyogyo Bridge. 

PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games mascots Soohorang and Bandabi ©Getty Images
PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games mascots Soohorang and Bandabi ©Getty Images

The 2018 Olympics will be the second Olympic Games to be held in South Korea, after the 1988 Summer Olympics held in Seoul, and will be South Korea's first Winter Games. 

Pyeongchang will be the third Asian city to host the Winter Games after Sapporo, Japan, 1972, and Nagano, Japan, 1998.