Festival featuring adult film stars vows to return

Organizers behind “2024 KXF The Fashion,” an adult industry exposition featuring Japanese adult film stars, announced Monday that it would return on a “bigger scale” in June, four days after announcing that they were canceling the event due to “safety concerns.”

The event, which was originally scheduled to take place on Saturday and Sunday, was marked as South Korea’s biggest sex festival by its organizer Play Joker. It was originally scheduled to be held in an exhibition hall in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, but was later blocked by the city government following a backlash from civic groups.

Play Joker later attempted to secure a venue in three other locations -- at a studio in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, on a cruise moored at Jamwon Hangang Park and at a pub in Gangnam, southern Seoul, all of which fell through. Eventually, Play Joker announced through its YouTube channel on April 18 that it was canceling the event due to concerns over the film stars' safety and privacy.

The controversy surrounding Play Joker’s event sparked gender conflict online, with some claiming that the demand to scrap the deal is a denial of men’s rights.

“A society that limits men’s sexual self-determination and demonizes male instincts is not a normal society,” wrote Rep. Cheon Ha-ram from the New Reform Party on his Facebook account on April 17. “While female instincts are recognized as legitimate for free and empowered women, male instincts are criminalized, degraded and are regarded with disgust.”

Other online users filed a petition on the Sangsangdaero Seoul website, an online platform for citizens to make suggestions to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, saying that strip shows and performances “specifically targeting women should also be canceled for causing social disorder.”

However, Play Joker rowed back on its decision to cancel the event, as it announced that it now plans to hold the event in Seoul later in June.

“We are arranging to rent a privately operated venue in Seoul to host the event, where we plan to invite two to three times more adult film stars than we did previously,” a Play Joker organizer said in the video.

Play Joker’s announcement comes after Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon posted an explanation video on his YouTube channel “Oh Se-hoon TV” on Friday.

“Jamwon Hangang Park and the cruise where the event was scheduled to take place are public facilities, operated by the city government,” stated Oh. “The city government concluded that an event of this nature shouldn't take place in a publicly managed space.”

A city government official told The Korea Herald that events of any nature could be limited from taking place in publicly operated facilities according to relevant laws.

“In this case, adult entertainment gatherings on Han River are prohibited under the River Act and the Excursion Ship and Ferry Business Act. The city government does not have authority to prohibit events from taking place in private facilities and does not plan to do so in the future."

According to Play Joker and the Korea Adult Content Association, this is not the first time a public event for adults is being held. A similar event was held on Dec. 10, 2023, at Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi Province, which saw around 1,300 visitors.