KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 2 — The K‑Spark in Malaysia festival, which made its local debut last weekend at the historic Stadium Merdeka, saw fans celebrating the return — and Malaysian debut — of their favourite K‑pop idols.
The festival had a strong lineup, which included the king of K‑pop, G‑Dragon, followed by other top stars such as Hwasa, DPR Ian and Itzy, as well as performances by local acts like 3P and Dolla.
The last-minute strategy?
Although this is the first time the K-Spark brand debuted in Malaysia, it is the third instalment of the festival which first debuted in Bangkok, Thailand back in February 22 last year.
Previously the brand was known as K-Star Spark but it was shortened to just K-Spark for the Malaysia edition of the festival and the brand is owned by South Korean performance and record production company ER Contents Media Group (ER CMG).
The second K-Spark festival was held in Hanoi in Vietnam on June 21 last year.
By rights, the K‑Spark festival should have been able to sell out the roughly 20,000‑capacity stadium, especially considering how tickets for G‑Dragon’s two‑day Übermensch concert in KL quickly sold out last year — but it didn’t.
There were a lot of factors to consider as to why the festival couldn’t manage to sell out the stadium.
However, it’s hard to ignore that the last‑minute announcement and ticket sales did play a role in the grand scheme of things.
For context, K‑Spark in Malaysia only began its teasers and promotion in late December last year, with the official announcement coming in January. Tickets went on sale on January 18 — just two weeks before the festival on January 31.
The local promoter for the festival is Machi Production, which is a relatively new player in the local event‑organising scene, with online travel and activities booking platform Klook Malaysia coming in as the official ticketing partner.
This resulted in K‑Spark in Malaysia being scrutinised, with local fans questioning the festival’s legitimacy and some even calling it a scam — but the rumours quickly faded after the organisers began sharing promotional videos featuring the lineup.
Interestingly, all three K‑Spark festivals share the same trait of releasing tickets less than 30 days before the festival date.
3Malaysia has the shortest window so far, announcing promotions just two weeks before the event, compared with Vietnam and Thailand, where tickets went on sale at least 30 days earlier — still an unusual move for a stadium‑sized K‑pop event.
However, it is also worth noting that the last-minute strategy seems to work for their Vietnam show, which was reported as sold out with around 40,000 spectators attending the festival.
Strong headliners
Another consistent feature of the K-Spark brand is its headliners.
G-Dragon and DPR Ian had both made appearances at every single edition of the K-Spark festivals.
G-Dragon had a momentous performance during the My Dinh National Stadium show which is coined as VP Bank K-Star Spark in Vietnam where the ‘Crayon’ singer performed his set enthusiastically under heavy rain.
There were also reports of an unruly fan storming the stage while G‑Dragon was performing his hit song Crooked, where he gestured for the fan to calm down.
G-Dragon also made headlines for his appearance at the first K-Spark event in Bangkok’s Rajamangala Stadium as it marked his first time headlining a music festival in South-east Asia following his hiatus.
Meanwhile, at the KL show, despite not being sold out, local fans still went crazy over the performances, with many praising the production quality and the professionalism shown by each artist.
Several fans previously told Malay Mail that they wished the festival announcement and ticket sales had been made earlier.
G‑Dragon, who is also a member of BigBang, teased that the group is gearing up for a comeback tour for its 20th anniversary and hinted they might return to Malaysia.
