The city of Busan said on the 12th that the Busan International Rock Festival was finally selected as a "pre-global festival" in the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's project to foster "global festivals."
This call for entries is a project in which the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) selects and intensively supports some cultural tourism festivals nationwide to usher in the era of 30 million inbound tourists.
The Busan International Rock Festival, newly designated in Jan. as a "2026–2027 cultural tourism festival" by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST), was also selected this time as a "pre-global festival." To secure the festival's originality, the city strengthened its network with overseas festival officials, pushed on-and-offline promotional strategies tailored to overseas audiences, and focused on meeting the evaluation criteria.
With this selection as a pre-global festival, the Busan International Rock Festival will receive 250 million won in national funding, along with expert consulting and customized support. It can also receive support from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) to improve readiness, including ▲ overseas on-site promotions and marketing ▲ development of global tourism products ▲ multilingual services using artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
The city plans to grow the Busan International Rock Festival into a world-class music festival on par with the United Kingdom's "Glastonbury" and Japan's "Fuji Rock Festival."
Park Heong-joon, the Busan mayor, said, "This selection as a pre-global festival is a result created by the Busan International Rock Festival's unrivaled content capabilities and Busan's dynamism," adding, "We will spare no full support so it can be reborn as a hub of global K-content that excites music fans around the world beyond Korea."