Hive, SM, JYP, YG form joint venture for Fanomenon — 520K visitors, 1 trillion won projected

South Korea's four biggest entertainment companies — Hive, SM, JYP, and YG Entertainment — have formed a joint venture to stage Fanomenon, a government-backed global K-pop festival, with a domestic edition set for December 2–12 across two venues in the Seoul metro area.

The announcement came at a press briefing held July 27 at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Samcheong-dong, Seoul. Culture Minister Choi Hee-young and Park Jin-young, chair of the Committee for Public Culture Exchange, both attended.

Programming splits between Seoul Arena in Changdong and KINTEX Hall 2 in Ilsan, Goyang. Seoul Arena hosts the concerts, awards ceremony, and nominee exhibitions by category. KINTEX runs a music festival, K-culture company exhibitions, and hands-on experiences.

The awards ceremony has a specific hook: it will name "the hottest fandom of the year," selecting a top-10 list and awarding first place on-site, with the relevant artist accepting on the fandom's behalf.

Organizers project roughly 520,000 total visitors, including approximately 200,000 from overseas, and an economic impact exceeding 1 trillion won. Artists from small and mid-sized agencies will participate alongside the four major labels.

Fanomenon's business scope runs three tracks: domestic and international festival hosting, K-culture centers in key global cities, and the awards ceremony. An overseas edition — described as a Korean Coachella — is scheduled for May 2028 in Los Angeles.

Park Jin-young framed the project in blunt terms. "When K-pop was advancing into America, nobody believed it," he said. "Honestly, it's very difficult, so please help us a lot." He added that the K-pop market should be understood as a fandom industry, and that detailed fandom data would underpin the awards selection so "everyone can agree."

(Getting four competing conglomerates to co-sign a single entity is not a small ask.)

Park closed with a vision: "I imagine our country becoming crowded with K-pop fans. It will be great happiness for all our people and practical profit for participating artists and companies."