Performance Venue Registration Procedure and Documents — Facilities Used for Performances 90 Days a Year or 30 Consecutive Days, 7-Day Processing and Disaster Response Plan

Procedure

1. 1. Check whether registration is required and the building use

   A performance means showing artistic works such as music, dance, theater, musicals, entertainment, Korean traditional music and acrobatics to the public by live performance, and performances that accompany product sales or advertising are excluded. A facility to be provided for such performances for 90 days or more a year or for 30 consecutive days or more must be registered. If the total floor area used as a performance venue in the same building is less than 500㎡, the building use must be Class II neighborhood living facility, and otherwise cultural and assembly facility, so check the use and any illegal building mark in the building register before signing the lease.

2. 2. Prepare the facility standards and the stage facility safety inspection

   The facilities required for registration are stage facilities including lighting and sound, and soundproofing facilities, and a venue with no ceiling over the seating area may omit soundproofing. If the stage machinery and equipment driven independently above and below the stage total 40 or more, a design review is required before construction starts, and every venue must pass a pre-registration safety inspection by a stage facility safety diagnosis agency. A venue with 1,000 seats or more must install a fire curtain on the stage unless it has been recognized as exempt by the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

3. 3. Prepare the disaster response plan

   The disaster response plan must include all of the following: the duties and management organization of the persons who manage the venue facilities, prevention of crowd crush accidents, safety management when installing and dismantling stage facilities, emergency measures and contacts, fire prevention and casualty prevention measures, and matters on safety management costs, the safety management organization, safety training and evacuation guidance. A venue with 500 seats or more must allocate at least 1% of its venue operating costs as safety management costs and appoint a chief safety officer and a safety manager. The venue must keep an evacuation map showing evacuation stairs, passages and equipment, or explain evacuation procedures to the audience before the performance starts.

4. 4. Submit the registration application and receive the registration certificate

   Submit the performance venue registration application (Enforcement Rule of the Public Performance Act, Form No. 10) to the city, county or district office with the facility installation statement, floor plan and layout plan, documents proving ownership or right to use the property, and the design review result (if applicable) and pre-registration safety inspection result from the safety diagnosis agency. Together with the registration application, report the disaster response plan for the current year using Form No. 13-3. The processing period is 7 days, the fee is set by city, county or district ordinance, and a performance venue registration certificate is issued unless the facility standards or safety inspection standards are not met or another statutory restriction is breached.

5. 5. Manage change registrations and periodic inspections after registration

   If the operator, venue name, stage machinery and equipment, number of seats, stage area or seating floor area changes, file a change registration (processing period 3 days), and if the business is closed, file a closure report within 30 days. The periodic safety inspection of stage facilities must be taken within 31 days before or after the date on which 3 years have passed since registration or the last inspection, and the precise safety diagnosis within 31 days before or after the date on which 9 years have passed; a self safety inspection must be carried out every year and its results kept for 3 years. The disaster response plan for the following year must be reported by December 31 every year, and any change must be reported before it is applied.

Required documents

• Performance venue registration (change registration) application (Enforcement Rule of the Public Performance Act, Form No. 10)
• Facility installation statement (divided into stage overview, seating, lobby, dressing rooms, stage machinery, lighting, sound and video)
• Floor plan and layout plan of the facility
• Documents proving ownership of or the right to use the property (lease agreement, etc.)
• Design review result (only for venues subject to it) and pre-registration safety inspection result from the stage facility safety diagnosis agency
• Performance venue disaster response plan report (Enforcement Rule of the Public Performance Act, Form No. 13-3)
• Electrical safety inspection confirmation (if you do not consent to administrative information sharing)
• Letter of authorization (when an administrative agent submits on your behalf)

Fees

Industry range of several hundred thousand won · We provide a quote after consultation based on the number of seats, the length of the disaster response plan, and whether a safety management organization is required. Inspection costs of the safety diagnosis agency, facility construction costs and the registration fee are separate.

See fees and official charges for this service →

Legal basis and review date

• Public Performance Act, Article 2
• Public Performance Act, Article 8
• Public Performance Act, Article 9
• Public Performance Act, Article 11
• Public Performance Act, Article 11-2
• Public Performance Act, Article 11-3
• Public Performance Act, Article 11-5
• Public Performance Act, Article 11-7
• Public Performance Act, Article 12
• Public Performance Act, Article 16
• Public Performance Act, Article 43
• Enforcement Decree of the Public Performance Act, Article 1-2
• Enforcement Decree of the Public Performance Act, Article 8
• Enforcement Decree of the Public Performance Act, Article 9
• Enforcement Decree of the Public Performance Act, Article 9-2
• Enforcement Decree of the Public Performance Act, Article 9-3
• Enforcement Decree of the Public Performance Act, Article 9-7
• Enforcement Decree of the Public Performance Act, Article 10
• Enforcement Decree of the Public Performance Act, Article 21
• Enforcement Decree of the Public Performance Act, Annex 1-2
• Enforcement Decree of the Public Performance Act, Annex 3
• Enforcement Decree of the Public Performance Act, Annex 4
• Enforcement Rule of the Public Performance Act, Article 5
• Enforcement Rule of the Public Performance Act, Article 6
• Enforcement Rule of the Public Performance Act, Form No. 10
• Enforcement Rule of the Public Performance Act, Form No. 13-3
• Enforcement Decree of the Building Act, Annex 1

Checked against the statutes on 2026-10-15

Statutes and public notices change, so each case needs to be checked individually. Statute titles are given in English for reference. The Korean statutes are the authoritative text.

Check these first

• If the venue use in the building register (Class II neighborhood living facility or cultural and assembly facility) and any illegal building mark are not checked before signing the lease, registration may be refused for breach of another statutory restriction even after the facilities are installed.
• When holding a performance expected to draw 1,000 or more spectators at a place other than a performance venue, a disaster response plan must be reported jointly with the operator of the place at least 14 days before the performance starts, separately from venue registration.

Frequently asked questions