HYBE, SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, and YG Entertainment have incorporated the company that will run Fanomenon, the K-pop festival set to debut in South Korea in December 2027.
Fanomenon Co. was registered on October 26, according to The Korea Herald, which reported details from the company’s corporate registry on Tuesday (November 10).
The joint venture launched with KRW 4 billion (approximately USD $3 million) in paid-in capital, made up of 800,000 common shares at KRW 5,000 each, the report said.
Its articles of incorporation cap the number of shares the company can issue at 5 million.
At KRW 5,000 per share, that would put its maximum capital at KRW 25 billion (approximately $18.7 million).
The company’s CEO is Park Yun-suh, who is also its only inside director, according to The Korea Herald.
Park Yun-suh, who was born in 1993, previously worked at both HYBE and JYP Entertainment.
The rest of the board is made up of four non-executive directors, one from each agency, and the company also has an auditor.
J.Y. Park, JYP’s founder, told a parliamentary audit on October 7 that the four agencies would contribute equal amounts and hold equal voting rights, according to The Herald Business, a sister publication of The Korea Herald.
Running the festival is only one of the activities listed in Fanomenon Co.‘s registered business purposes, which also include IP licensing, ticket sales and brokerage, investment in the culture and entertainment sectors, the acquisition and operation of rights to performance venues, and the production and distribution of food, fashion, and merchandise, The Korea Herald reported.
“Fanomenon has a public-interest goal first and foremost, but that alone cannot draw the participation of world-class artists,” J.Y. Park said in July, when detailed plans for the festival were unveiled. “It will clearly be able to turn a profit.”
Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Chae Hwi-young said on October 1 that the venture would not pay out its profits to shareholders as dividends, according to The Asia Business Daily.
Earnings will instead be reinvested in future editions of Fanomenon.
The four companies’ own acts will also be held to 30% or less of the concert lineup, with room made for artists from smaller agencies.
“The headliners will be top artists, but we will also create opportunities for new acts and emerging agencies,” J.Y. Park said at the July unveiling.
Fanomenon‘s main event is to be paid for from private sources, including ticket sales, sponsorship, global broadcast rights, and exhibition booth sales, according to The Herald Business.
South Korea’s proposed 2027 government budget does include Fanomenon-related funding, for attracting foreign tourists and helping smaller K-culture companies take part in related events, The Asia Business Daily reported.
Opposition lawmaker Bae Hyun-jin said at the October 7 audit that KRW 15 billion (approximately $11.2 million) had been budgeted for Fanomenon in 2027, according to The Herald Business.
The incorporation follows a dispute over the Fanomenon trademark.
J.Y. Park co-chairs the Presidential Committee on Popular Culture Exchange, the government body overseeing Fanomenon, alongside Chae.
JYP filed for the trademark in Korea on its own when the committee launched in October 2025, The Herald Business reported.
A 50% stake in the Korean trademark was transferred to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in April, but JYP’s overseas filings, including in the US and Japan, stayed in its name alone.
That prompted accusations of preferential treatment when it came to light in late September.
“Because JYP already had a dedicated team in place, taking steps like filing in advance before transferring the rights to the government or a dedicated entity is certainly not entirely normal,” J.Y. Park told the October 7 audit, according to The Korea Times. “However, it stemmed from a desire to do things well and a concern that someone else might preemptively claim the trademark.”
J.Y. Park also rejected suggestions that the four agencies were being favored. “I begged YG, I begged SM, I begged HYBE,” he said, according to The Herald Business.
“All the companies had to sacrifice so much for this. It was really tough to pull off. But everyone made a bold decision to commit because they saw the long-term vision – the ripple effect this will have on Korea and how it will spill over into other industries,” J.Y. Park said, according to The Korea Times. “So calling this a ‘special privilege’ or ‘preferential treatment’ just doesn’t sit right.”
On October 22, the government signed a revised agreement with JYP under which the Fanomenon trademark filings in JYP’s name, in Korea and overseas, will be held 50-50 by the ministry and the joint venture, according to The Herald Business and Korean broadcaster MTN.
The agreement was submitted to the National Assembly the following day, at the closing audit session of its Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, where Chae told lawmakers that the ministry would examine whether it could become more directly involved in the venture, The Korea Herald reported.
After Lee Jae-jung, who chairs that committee, warned that the company would be no different from a government body if the government intervened too heavily, Chae clarified that he had meant he would consider a proposal for government officials to sit on its board, but said the ministry had no plans to take part in the venture itself, according to Korean daily Shinailbo.
Chae also told the October 23 hearing that the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) had cleared the four companies to form the joint venture, according to SBS Biz.
MBW reported in April that the four agencies had submitted a business combination report to the KFTC as part of the venture’s formation.
The board’s makeup was raised again at a parliamentary budget review, Korean outlet Wolyo Shinmun reported on Wednesday (November 11), with Bae criticizing the absence of any government representative. Chae responded that the ministry’s 50% share of the Fanomenon trademark gave it a means of control.
Fanomenon is scheduled to run from December 2 to December 12, 2027, across Seoul Arena in Chang-dong and the KINTEX exhibition center in Goyang.
The 11-day program will combine K-pop concerts with awards given to fan communities rather than to individual artists, as MBW reported in July.
The committee has also discussed taking Fanomenon overseas from May 2028, starting in Los Angeles.
The venture comes as live music becomes a bigger revenue stream for K-pop’s largest companies, with HYBE reporting record quarterly concert revenues of KRW 726.8 billion ($512 million) in Q3 2026, led by BTS‘s ARIRANG world tour.
Elsewhere in Asia, Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) and Universal Music Japan set up their own festival joint venture, NINE BY NINE Inc., in Tokyo on April 1, with its first event planned for 2027.Music Business Worldwide
