HYBE's annual music festival Weverse Con is under fire for trying to widen its artist lineup to younger and older artists beyond the label's roster, with some of the audience demanding refunds.

This year's Weverse Con aimed to diversify its artist lineup by inviting a wide range of non-HYBE artists from various generations, including one-man indie band 10CM, girl group Billlie and Japanese pop duo Yoasobi. The festival took place on Saturday and Sunday at Incheon's Inspire Entertainment Resort.

The inaugural Weverse Con in 2022 included HYBE boy bands Enhypen and Seventeen, and last year's festival included the label's girl groups Le Sserafim and NewJeans.

The biggest complaint from this year's festival was the appearance of Bang Si-hyuk, HYBE's founder, during the performance of JYP Entertainment's co-founder, Park Jin-young.

Park invited Bang onstage to play the guitar for the JYP singer's song “I Have a Girlfriend” (2001), boy band g.o.d.’s “Lies” (2000) and other songs. Bang used to be JYP Entertainment’s in-house producer before establishing Big Hit Entertainment, the predecessor to HYBE, in 2005.

Park and Bang’s performance was part of Park's 30th anniversary tribute stage, where Park performed his hits with younger HYBE K-pop artists, including girl group ILLIT, Park Ji-won of girl group fromis_9 and boy band Enhypen’s Heeseung and Jay. Jay was part of the collaboration stage between Park and Bang.

Unlike Park's other collaborations, Bang’s appearance was not announced beforehand. Reactions to his surprise appearance were met with both boos and cheers, according to local media reports.

The backlash toward Bang comes amid the ongoing conflict between HYBE and Min Hee-jin, the CEO of its subsidiary ADOR. Bang has kept mum on the issue, and ADOR's artist NewJeans was not included in this year's Weverse Con lineup.

Comments cropped up in online communities such as TheQoo in response to the performance, such as “Supply without demand,” “Did the pigs get dementia,” “Stay home ajussi [middle-aged Korean man]” and “Does he [Bang] have no shame? He tried to bury a person last time."

Other mishaps also tainted the festival, with singer Kwon Eun-bi canceling her appearance due to undisclosed health issues and girl group ILLIT member Wonhee performing while seated due to an ankle injury.

HYBE's prior offline event, the 2024 BTS Festa, also came under fire for alleged sexual harassment and reports of poor management, in which some fans attempted to kiss BTS member Jin and the event's crew reportedly being understaffed.

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BY KIM MIN-YOUNG [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]