Leading agencies venture into themed entertainment spaces

G-Dragon appears on a promotion video of Jeju Shinhwa World (Jeju Shinhwa World)

Listening to K-pop is no longer enough for many K-pop fans, who now demand real life contact with the stars, whether direct or indirect.

Catering to those needs, major Korean agencies have been establishing multimedia complexes where fans can indulge in K-pop in ways other than music.

At the forefront of this new K-pop business is YG Entertainment, which is preparing to launch a theme park called YG Town, in the Jeju Shinhwa World resort on Jeju Island, which opened Saturday.

YG Town is scheduled to open in November, and includes a coffee shop and a bowling alley that Big Bang frontman G Dragon helped plan and design. Aiming to attract K-pop fans of all ages and nationalities, YG Town will also include a space where DJ parties can be held, an outdoor theater and a building designed to resemble a keyboard filled with trendy shops.

Jeju Shinhwa World (Jeju Shinhwa World)

Jeju Shinhwa World (Jeju Shinhwa World)

The high-end resort, which spans approximately 2.5 square kilometers, will continue to open other facilities, including a movie theme park, a casino and a water park by 2019.

FNC Entertainment, home to artists such as FT Island and CN Blue, recently opened a celebrity-themed space called FNC WOW in Myeong-dong, a downtown Seoul shopping district popular with tourists. Designed to reflect celebrities’ dressing rooms from the ‘70s and ’80s, the retro entertainment space also has a bakery and coffee shop where visitors can enjoy drinks and desserts named after the agency’s musicians, such as CN Blue Berry cake, while checking out content related to FNC artists. An official of the agency told media that FNC WOW is one of the agency’s attempts to expand its channels of communication with the fans and that the agency is planning to increase the content in the space in the future. FNC WOW is open 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. year round.

FNC WOW (Screencaptured from YouTube)

S.M. Entertainment was the first major K-pop agency to use an offline site to connect K-pop stars and fans, opening S.M. Town Coex Artium near Samseong Station in Seoul, in January 2015. It is a six-floor compound complete with contents related to S.M. Entertainment‘s stars.

Calling itself a “theme park in the city,” Coex Artium features a variety of facilities and activities, including celebrity shops carrying T-shirts, hats and other licensed products along with signed photos.

There is also a cafe that offers celebrity-themed snacks and drinks and the S.M. Town Theater, where hologram musicals and other performances are regularly put on. Coex Artium is open every day. K-pop fans can also check out the first floor of the agency’s headquarters in the nearby Cheongdam-dong, which has an S.M. restaurant, coffee shop and exhibitions.

While another leading agency JYP Entertainment doesn’t run any entertainment complexes, expectation is rising that the agency may create a space for fans when it moves its headquarters to Gangdong-gu, Seoul, near the Olympic Park sometime next year.

By Hong Dam-young (lotus@heraldcorp.com)