REVIEW · Festivals
2025 Asia Influencer Festival: A Record of Cultural Exchange in Seoul
Performances and awards where culture, fashion and IT met
The 2025 Asia Influencer Festival took place at World K-Pop Center’s Glass Hall in Jung-gu, Seoul, on 29 August. Influencers from across Asia gathered for cultural exchange and cooperation in fashion, beauty, tourism, IT and healthcare, creating an international networking occasion.
That range beyond fashion and beauty defined the event. Shared performances sat alongside introductions to different industries. Influencers participated as points of contact between audiences across countries and industry representatives.
Seoul as a Point of Cultural Exchange
With roughly a decade of history, the festival has been planned and operated by Narest Entertainment, whose work expanded into Wanghong Super Challenge and Super Influencer Awards. The Korea Influencer Association, Global K-Culture Association and YMSTAR co-hosted, with Follow Me E&M overseeing the event. Cooperating and sponsoring companies and institutions added scale and significance.
Beyond a celebration, it positioned Korea as a hub encouraging cross-sector collaboration and mutual understanding across Asia.
The program’s genre range was also evident: popular song, classical vocals and children’s dance filled the stage differently. For participants with different languages and backgrounds, music and movement provided a shared program they could watch and respond to without explanation.
A Varied Performance Program
Performances by Jeon Kyung-ho, Moena, classical vocalist Kim Jung-a, Roma and Roo engaged the audience. A children’s dance group including Cream Seohyun, with two million subscribers, added an energetic routine.
Japanese actor and singer KANO MIYU, familiar to Korean viewers through Korea–Japan King of Singers, joined both performances and awards. She received the Special Grand Prize for Cultural Contribution in recognition of her role in Asian cultural exchange.
Her participation linked performance and recognition: a Japanese singer known through Korean television appeared in Seoul and received a cultural award. Recognition formed through broadcasting continued into an in-person encounter, placing a Korea–Japan popular-culture connection within the event.
Awards and Influencer Connections
Awards recognized influencers’ contributions across fields. Participants encouraged each other’s work and explored future joint projects and cultural exchanges.
Candidates for season six of Super Influencer Awards also attended ahead of a cultural exchange in Osaka that September, gaining stage experience and sharing anticipation for further activity in Asia.
The ceremony introduced people’s work and helped them get acquainted. Performances focused attention onstage; awards and networking shifted it toward people and activities. The season-six candidates exemplified how a meeting in one city could connect to the next exchange.
Connecting Korea and Asia
The festival aimed to expand influencers’ reach by connecting culture, fashion, beauty, IT and healthcare. Regarded as a symbolic exchange beyond performances and awards, it expanded opportunities, an organizer said, “for Asian influencers to share cultures and content and collaborate, with Korea as a focal point.”
The occasion offered audiences and participants experiences across culture, art and industry, reaffirming Seoul’s role as a meeting place for Asian cultural exchange.
Attendance and an event’s scale cannot alone establish the success of later collaboration. What the occasion demonstrated was that people across fields shared performances, recognition and networking. The joint content and follow-up activities arising from it require separate observation.
Related event footage
KANO MIYU’s performance footage from the same Asia Influencer Festival.