HYBE, SM, JYP, and YG Advance Joint Efforts for Global Festival “Fanomenon”

HYBE, SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, and YG Entertainment, the four major entertainment companies in South Korea, are working to establish a joint venture for hosting a global music festival.

This joint venture is expected to serve as the core platform for implementing the “Fanomenon” project, led by Park Jin-young, chairman of the Popular Culture Exchange Committee. Fanomenon is a term combining “fan” and “phenomenon,” referring to large-scale music events driven by the cultural impact created by fanbases. The four companies recently submitted a merger application to the Fair Trade Commission and plan to set up the venture by investing equal shares.

At the launch ceremony of the Popular Culture Exchange Committee in October 2025, Chairman Park Jin-young stated that he aims to build world-class K-pop performance venues and create festivals that surpass the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. This vision seeks to expand cultural influence through the development of infrastructure that enables more immersive and accessible K-culture experiences, alongside large-scale festivals capable of attracting global audiences.

The plan calls for launching the festival in South Korea in December 2027 after approximately two years of preparation, with subsequent expansion to major cities around the world starting in 2028. This push for a joint venture stems from the recognition that stable progress requires industry-wide collaboration rather than efforts by individual companies.

The four companies stated, “We are currently in the initial review phase, and no specific details regarding the project’s content or operation methods have been finalized. We will make careful decisions going forward by taking into account market conditions and various opinions.”

This move is interpreted as an attempt to expand beyond K-pop concerts into global festival intellectual property, drawing significant attention from within the industry to the future development of this project.