South Korea is set to host its first-ever global webtoon festival and awards ceremony, highlighting the country's leading role in the growing global popularity of webtoons, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on Sunday.

The 2024 World Webtoon Festival will run from Sept. 26 to 29 at various venues across Seongsu-dong, Seongdong-gu, Seoul.

The festival will kick off with the 2024 World Webtoon Awards on the opening day at S-Factory in Seongsu-dong, a retail, event and cultural space. During the ceremony, the ministry will present the grand prize and the head judge's award to two standout works selected from 104 nominated web comics, submitted via an international open call held from June to July.

"Starting this year, the Ministry of Culture plans to continuously support the awards, aiming to transform them into a premier global webtoon gathering, welcoming professionals from across the industry," an official from the Culture Ministry said in a press release.

Throughout the festival, visitors will be able to explore pop-up stores from leading webtoon companies, offering webtoon-related products and engaging activities. Participating companies include major players in the Korean webtoon industry, such as Naver Webtoon and Kakao Entertainment.

In addition to pop-up stores, the festival will feature immersive webtoon-related experiences, including AI caricatures, AR photocards, self-photo booths featuring webtoon intellectual properties, webtoon artist talk concerts and live drawing shows.

The webtoon pop-up stores, located at S-Factory, will operate from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., with other webtoon-related events taking place in nearby buildings.

Priority entry will be given to visitors with online reservations, though on-site entry will also be available. The official website will go live on Tuesday, with online reservations starting on Thursday.

“With Korea being the birthplace of webtoons, the Ministry of Culture aims to make this festival and awards ceremony a source of joy for fans and a platform for business-to-business interactions. By recognizing the economic value of webtoons, we aim to create opportunities for investment, contracts, and other economic achievements,” said Yoon Yang-soo, head of content policy at the Ministry of Culture, in a press release.

For more information about the festival, visit official website wefe.kr and the 2024 World Webtoon Festival’s official Instagram account.