MyK FESTA, Seoul Wonderland Show, and Canada K-Pop Cover Dance Festival — Multiple Large-Scale K-Pop-Focused Events Held Successively

Large-scale global festivals centered on K-Pop are being held one after another in May and June, demonstrating the worldwide influence of Hallyu. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea International Cultural Exchange Agency will host “2025 MyK FESTA” from June 19 to 22 at the Olympic Park area in Songpa-gu, Seoul. This inaugural event serves as an experience platform where Hallyu content can be viewed, heard, and interacted with firsthand, sharing the latest trends in South Korea’s cultural industry with the world. On the 19th, the festival kicks off at the K-Spo Dome with a spectacular concert featuring popular K-Pop artists such as WAYV, Youngji, aespa, ILLIT, Hearts2Hearts, and AHOPE. On the 21st, ITZY, Chungha, Heize, Rin, Lee Mu-jin, and B.I.O. take the stage to maintain the momentum from the opening performances, while on the 22nd, internationally recognized traditional Korean music groups like Akdan Gwangchil and Yuhu Scarcity perform. On the 20th, an international conference will be held, bringing together top experts from within and outside the content and related industries, including Mike Van Billboard, Danielle Jin, President of Visa’s Asia-Pacific Marketing, Choi Jong-il, President of Iconix, and Lee Young-ah, Head of Strategic Planning at Olive Young, to discuss the growth potential of the content industry and its expansion into related sectors. At the Handball Stadium, booths will be set up to display and allow visitors to experience content and products from over 100 domestic companies representing fields linked to Hallyu, such as music, dramas, webtoons, food, and daily life. Business negotiations will also take place at Hanyeol Plaza in Olympic Park between around 200 domestic companies seeking to expand overseas and over 100 foreign purchasing companies. Meanwhile, the “Seoul Wonderland Show” held as part of the opening ceremony of the “Seoul Spring Festival” at Seoul’s Samcheon-gu World Cup Stadium on the 30th featured current-generation K-Pop idols such as NCT WISH, KICKFLIP, NU’EST W, Hearts2Hearts, KickFlip, IZNA, NEXZ, ALL AWARDS, ENHYPEN, TOURS, NMIXX, STAYC, and THE BOYZ, along with the first-generation group g.o.d. Particularly on g.o.d’s stage, fans of all ages joined together to sing, showcasing the passion of K-Pop enthusiasts across generations. g.o.d said, “Aren’t we the first generation of idols? Today’s idols are the fifth generation,” adding, “It’s amazing to see our younger peers spreading their influence around the world.” The follow-up stage performance “One Candle” saw all previous performers return to the stage to sing together with g.o.d, creating a unified performance across generations. On June 15, the “2025 K-Pop Cover Dance Festival Canada Final” will be held at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Calgary, Canada. Eleven teams that passed the online qualifying rounds will compete for the title of Canada’s representative team. H1-KEY, a K-Pop girl group, will perform a special stage and also serve as a judge. This event has been organized annually by the Seoul Shinmun and the Korean Cultural Center in the host country, earning widespread popularity among Hallyu fans worldwide. Yoon Yang-soo, Director of the International Cultural Promotion Policy Office at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said, “Hallyu has now expanded beyond popular culture into various industries, forming large overseas fanbases. We hope that through this event, many Hallyu fans will visit South Korea, and further that Hallyu will expand more broadly to enhance its industrial value.”