A cultural event marking the one-year countdown until the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics will open in Gangwon Province on Thursday.

The G-1 Festival will kick off with an opening ceremony slated to be held at the Gangneung Hockey Centre at 6:30 p.m.

The event will feature a choir consisting of two-thousand-18 people as well as performances by various K-pop artists.

Apart from the G-1 Festival, the World Singles Distances Speed Skating Championships under the International Skating Union(ISU) will be held for four days beginning Thursday at the Gangneung Ice Arena. World-class athletes, including South Korean Olympic gold medalist Lee Sang-hwa and speed skating champion Sven Kramer of the Netherlands, will compete in the event.

The Pyeongchang Winter Olympics will be held for 17 days beginning February ninth next year across the country’s eastern Gangwon Province.

Around six-thousand-500 athletes and officials from 95 countries will participate in the quadrennial event, where 102 gold medals are up for grabs.