A Symbolic Model for City Branding and Economic Growth

On July 5, 2025, Blackpink’s World Tour Korea stop filled the main stadium at Goyang Sports Complex, signaling a shift where a stadium becomes a stage for the city itself. The lineup also included the first stage since BTS members J-Hope and Jin completed their military service, alongside Oasis and Travis Scott’s solo Korean appearances, completing a highly anticipated program.

This year saw 18 concerts and around 700,000 attendees, with ticket revenue reaching 9.1 billion won. When Oasis and Travis Scott’s shows are included, revenue is set to surpass 10 billion won, underscoring the venue’s growing financial impact. The idle stadium has begun to emerge as a revenue-generating asset for the city, a transformation described by local officials as the embodiment of Festa-nomics: concerts drive dwell time, dwell time fuels spending, and spending in turn boosts further demand for concerts and tourism.

Goyang defines this feedback loop as Festa-nomics and has tied it to broader infrastructure plans. The city announced that Live Nation Korea was selected as the preferred bidder for the K-Culture Valley Arena project, aiming for completion in 2029. When the Kintex 3 Exhibition Hall opens in 2028, the exhibition space in the area will become the largest in the country, and the Novotel Ambassador Kintex hotel will provide about 2,100 rooms. All told, the stadium, venue, exhibition hall, and hospitality infrastructure are being integrated into a single system with GoyangCon at the center.

Mayor Dong-Hwan Lee stated that Goyang is shifting from a city that simply attracts performances to a city where performances design the city, with ambitions to become a globally sought-after hub for live entertainment. This evolution from idle space to growth engine reflects a new benchmark for the K-Culture ecosystem, rooted in how the city leverages culture to redefine its economy and future.