KCON: TACT 3, employing the latest VR and AR technologies, attracted an estimated 4 million people around the world, who made a journey to the United States, Japan, France and Thailand, the four centers of Hallyu fever. (Photo: CJ ENM)

KCON: TACT 3, the third season of the online Korean cultural festival titled “TACT” opened on March 20 for a nine-day run, fascinating K-pop fans around the world.

KCON: TACT 3 is employing the concept of making a journey to the United States, Japan, France and Thailand, the four centers of Hallyu (Korean Wave) fever.

On Day 1 and 2, AB6IX, LOONA, OH MY GIRL, The BOYZ and Dreamcatcher, SF9, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, and WOODZ performed concerts against a background that depicted Los Angeles.

KCON, launched in 2012, is Korea’s largest annual K-pop flagship event promoting Korean culture and lifestyle. It took place in countries including the U.S., France, Japan and Mexico until last year, but it went online and became KCON: TACT in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The first and second KCON: TACTs, featuring a combined 60 K-pop artist teams, drew about 8.45 million viewers from around the world. This year’s TACT 3 would showcase the present and the future of K-pop, CJ ENM said.

TACT 3 introduced contents based on popular factors and the characteristics of fans in each region, which proved to be successful during the previous KCON events.

TACT 3 had influencer workshops and a fan meeting program, done in optimal time and in different languages, as they once did on KCON in the United States and Japan.

Concert stages were arranged with differentiated performing act of Mnet to maximize the off-line feelings for artists and fans.

TACT 3, employing a world tour format, depicted stories that penetrated from the beginning to the end.

The Meet & Greet Program, focusing on communication with fans, offered diverse experiences to fans, such as artists’ participating in content, a fan favorite, and a talk show in a comfortable setting, and artists’ sharing their favorite music with fans.

The festival is televised exclusively via TVING for Korean fans. Foreign fans can participate in the festival via YouTube KCON official and Mnet K-Pop channel.

A CJ ENM official said, “One of the greatest strengths of our event is that diverse artists, leading the present and future of K-Pop, can get together in one place.” CJ ENM will make every effort to spearhead the global spread of K-Pop, the official said.

CJ ENM to Open Nation’s Biggest Virtual Studio

CJ ENM plans to dedicate the nation’s biggest virtual studio centered around an in-house content R&D center this year and ramp up virtual production.

To that end, it signed an MOU on the introduction of technologies related to next-generation real experience content production with Epic Games, a leading interactive entertainment company and provider of 3D engine technology.

CJ ENM Content R&D, consisting of image technology experts and IP experts, supports broadcasting programs and films through exploration of creative subjects and utilization of advanced real experience technologies, such as VFX and XR.

A 1,650 square meter virtual production studio, outfitted with large-sized LED panels and in-camera VFX equipment is to be opened at the CJ ENM Content World in Paju, Gyeonggi-do, this year to embark on a full-fledged next-generation real experience content production.

Unlike the conventional green screen, which takes much time to conduct follow-up, the virtual production studio will enable on-the-scene confirmation of finalized videos by filming actors and backgrounds at once by projecting a 3D background on a super large LED wall.

Virtual production will be used to produce diverse real experience content, including not only dramas and films, produced by CJ ENM, but also entertainment programs and XR performances.