Round Festival
The ASEAN–Korea Music Festival, branded as the ROUND Festival, is an annual music festival that features performances from artists from South Korea and ten member nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations , with each nation taking turns in hosting the event. Organized and presented by KBS World, the festival aims to promote cultural exchanges between South Korea and ASEAN countries through the medium of popular music.
The first edition of the festival was held virtually on December 6, 2020, with its first in-person edition held in Jakarta, Indonesia from October 21 to 22, 2023. The latest edition of the festival was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from June 21 to 22, 2025.
Background
The ROUND Festival is organized and presented by KBS World, the international broadcasting division of the Korean Broadcasting System, the national public broadcaster of South Korea. It is also supported by ASEAN and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Korea.The event is sponsored by the ASEAN-Korea Cooperation Fund, a fund established by ASEAN and the government of South Korea aimed to foster regional cooperation between ASEAN and South Korea by advancing sustainable and inclusive development across ASEAN member nations, as well as enhancing people-to-people connectivity through education, cultural exchange and tourism, and strengthening economic resilience and digital transformation in member states, among other objectives.
The first two editions of the festival, held in 2020 and 2021, were organized online due to the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea and in Southeast Asia, with the 2021 festival being delayed until January 2022. According to KBS World director Lee Han-sol, the COVID-19 pandemic also caused a planned in-person edition of the inaugural 2020 festival to be scrapped, which was originally scheduled to be held in Manila, Philippines. Its first in-person festival was later held on October 2023, hosted in Jakarta, Indonesia at Beach City International Stadium. Since then, editions of the ROUND Festival are hosted in nations that hold the position of chairmanship of ASEAN in their respective years.
Broadcast
KBS World has also broadcast the festival worldwide through its television channel and on YouTube, where the recorded telecast would be split into two parts broadcast in separate days. Previously, the festival was broadcast in South Korea on KBS1.KBS World's organization and broadcast of the inaugural 2020 festival won the 2021 Digital Content Award from the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union.