Your Complete Guide to Korea's 2025 Year-End Gayo Festivals: Dates, Lineups, and How to Watch

December in South Korea means one thing in K-pop: the year-end gayo festivals. Three major broadcasters — KBS, MBC, and SBS — each host their flagship annual music event in the final weeks of December, creating a concentrated stretch of live performances that functions simultaneously as a celebration, a retrospective, and a statement about which acts defined the year.

In 2025, all three festivals are confirmed and their lineups — partially or fully announced — reflect a year in which K-pop's fourth generation consolidated its dominance while legacy acts made meaningful returns. If you're planning to watch, stream, or simply track the coverage, this guide covers everything you need to know about when, where, and who is performing at each event.

KBS Gayo Daechukje: December 19 in Incheon

The KBS Gayo Daechukje ("KBS Song Festival") will be held on December 19, 2025, at Songdo Convensia in Incheon — a deliberate departure from the Seoul venues that have historically hosted the event. Incheon's Songdo district, known for its planned urban development and International Business District, provides a distinctive backdrop and a slightly different audience access dynamic compared to Seoul-based venues.

The KBS festival has traditionally prioritized mainstream chart-performers and multi-generational appeal over the more youth-oriented approach of its SBS and MBC counterparts. Expect a lineup that blends current fourth-generation acts with veteran artists who retain strong chart presence. The festival is broadcast live on KBS and typically available for international streaming through regional partnerships.

MBC Gayo Daejejeon: Late December

MBC's year-end music festival, the Gayo Daejejeon ("MBC Song Festival"), has announced a lineup that reads as a comprehensive map of K-pop's current active tier. Confirmed performers include aespa, ATEEZ, BOYNEXTDOOR, ILLIT, ITZY, IVE, LE SSERAFIM, NCT Dream, NCT Wish, NMIXX, PLAVE, RIIZE, Stray Kids, THE BOYZ, TOMORROW X TOGETHER (TXT), TWS, and ZEROBASEONE, among others.

Several additions from outside the standard fourth-generation roster expand the scope: PLAVE — the virtual idol group that became one of 2025's most-discussed acts — is confirmed alongside LUCY and HANRORO. Individual artist appearances include SHINee's Minho and TXT's Yeonjun as solo performers. MBC's festival has in recent years leaned into special collaboration stages that pair artists across generations or genres, and the 2025 edition is expected to follow that format.

SBS Gayo Daejeon: December 25 at INSPIRE Arena

The SBS Gayo Daejeon ("SBS Song Festival") will be held on December 25, 2025, at INSPIRE Arena — the 30,000-capacity venue at the INSPIRE Entertainment Resort near Incheon International Airport. The Christmas Day timing is traditional for SBS's festival and has historically generated the largest international viewership of the three events.

The 2025 SBS Gayo Daejeon lineup is the most expansive of the three festivals, spanning established acts and emerging names in a format that reflects both the year's biggest performers and artists the broadcaster wants to spotlight going into 2026. Confirmed performers include Stray Kids, TXT, ENHYPEN, IVE, LE SSERAFIM, BOYNEXTDOOR, ZEROBASEONE, RIIZE, NCT Wish, BABYMONSTER, ALLDAY PROJECT, NCT Dream, THE BOYZ, ATEEZ, ITZY, TREASURE, NMIXX, &TEAM, TWS, ILLIT, aespa, NEXZ, MEOVV, and izna. Second-generation representation comes through TVXQ's U-Know Yunho and SHINee's Key, both of whom are scheduled for solo or special-stage appearances.

How to Watch: Streaming and Access Options

All three festivals broadcast live on their respective terrestrial channels — KBS2, MBC, and SBS — with the events typically beginning in the late afternoon and running through the evening Korean time. For international viewers, streaming access varies by region and has become more structured over recent years as demand outside Korea has grown.

SBS provides international streaming access through its SBS NOW platform, with some content accessible via YouTube depending on the territory. KBS World, the broadcaster's international channel, typically covers portions of the Gayo Daechukje for global audiences. MBC's international content distribution has been handled through platforms including Rakuten Viki and Kocowa, though availability varies by country. Fans in markets without official streaming access have historically relied on fan livestreams and next-day uploads, though official distribution channels have been expanding steadily.

The three festivals together represent one of the K-pop calendar's most concentrated periods of live performance content. With 2025 being a year of significant chart activity across multiple generations — from the solo releases of BTS members completing their military service to fourth-generation acts pushing into global chart territory — the year-end stages are positioned to reflect the full range of what the year produced. For fans who follow K-pop broadly rather than through the lens of a single act, the December festival window offers a rare opportunity to see the genre's current landscape assembled in one place.

What to Expect: Special Stages and Collaborations

One of the defining features of the year-end festivals — and a major reason they attract attention beyond the standard music show audience — is the tradition of special collaborative stages that would not appear in any other format. These are typically revealed only during the broadcast itself, which drives real-time viewing and limits spoiler circulation. In recent years, cross-generation stages pairing senior artists with current acts have become a reliable highlight, offering a compressed narrative about K-pop's lineage that would take months of regular programming to replicate.

The 2025 festivals arrive at an interesting historical moment. Second-generation acts like TVXQ (represented by Yunho at SBS), SHINee's Key and Minho, and other senior artists who maintain active profiles are sharing stages with fourth-generation groups that many of them influenced directly. The transition from the third-generation era — dominated by BTS, TWICE, and BLACKPINK — to the current landscape makes these year-end events a living timeline of how K-pop's commercial center has shifted. The three festivals are, collectively, the genre's annual year-end report: a snapshot of where the music is, who is making it, and which direction the audience is moving in as the calendar turns.