By Charles Audouin
Photos = MBC Special Project Center
Video = Korea.net's official YouTube channel 

Foreign promoters of Korea worldwide on Nov. 4 from 5:30 p.m. gathered at Daloreum Theater of the National Theater of Korea in Seoul's Jung-gu District.

The Korean Culture and Information Service (KOCIS), an affiliate of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, hosted this year's K-Wave Festival to honor and share foreign creators of outstanding content about Korea with aficionados of Korean culture worldwide.

From 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., the event ran in two parts: the K-Creative Awards and the K-Community Challenge.

The first part honored eight outstanding Korea.net Honorary Reporters who promoted Korea through articles this year and eight "K-influencer" teams. The eight first-place finishers in each category and their works were also announced in Talk Talk Korea, a global online contest of Korea-related content. 

"K-Culture this year has also communicated with people worldwide," KOCIS Director Kim Jangho said in his congratulatory speech. "Korean culture has grown closer to residents of the globe more than ever thanks to passionate support from people like all of you who love Korean culture."

"KOCIS hopes that Korea and the world continue communication through culture and promote understanding and friendship and will keep supporting your efforts." 

Nathalie Fisz from France, named one of this year's top eight Honorary Reporters, said in her acceptance speech, "I grew interested in Korea through my daughter, who lives in Daegu."

To Honorary Reporters across the world, she added, "Please write articles about Korea with passion and an open heart."

As an Honorary Reporter since 2020 and having written over 50 articles, Fisz has written about a Korean adoptee organization in France and cultural fields of common interest such as interviews with artists of both countries.

"It's an honor to promote Korea all over the world," outstanding K-influencer Franco Gil of Venezuela said. "I will continue creating fun content on Korean culture for my subscribers, who always inspire me."

Gil received heightened attention for making a video advertising tourism in Korea and pop culture content such as that on Korean music and dramas.

Fabian Alejandro from Colombia won a prize from Talk Talk Korea for his sensory video that explores K-pop over the years since the 1990s. 

The second half of the event saw the top three winners of the K-Community Challenge, an online contest for Hallyu fan clubs, receive awards and perform on stage.

The competition allows such clubs to share video content after learning from instructional videos on traditional Korean culture.

Crisale from Mexico won the award for the category of Joseon pop, a crossover genre between gugak (traditional music) and pop music, and performed "Heungboga Baktaryeong" (Song of Gourds) on stage with gugak band AUX.

The Nigerian group Ganghan won the contemporary Korean percussion music category and showed off its drum play with the traditional percussion band AZAK. fMS from Korea in taekwonmu, a category that combines Korean dance with taekwondo, performed on stage with the taekwonmu team ARTAE.

Eric from the boy band The BOYZ, a promotional ambassador of Korean culture this year, also took part. Performing to congratulate the winners on stage were K-pop groups like iKON, KARD, LIMELIGHT and SECRET NUMBER.

A combined 337 spectators filled the seats of Daloreum Theater and 54,543 fans worldwide watched the festival's livestream on Korea.net's official YouTube channel. The number of people who simultaneously watched the broadcast peaked at 26,153.

caudouin@korea.kr