ISLAMABAD: A massive crowd gathered at the Serena Business Complex (SBC) Lawn in Islamabad for the 2026 K‑Wave Festa, a cultural festival organized by the South Korean Embassy. The free‑entry event, featuring K‑pop performances, K‑beauty booths, Korean food, games, and cultural activities, drew thousands of fans, overwhelming the venue and forcing organizers to end the programme early due to overcrowding and bad weather.
Videos of the long queues quickly went viral on social media, with several accounts — particularly from India — claiming that South Korea was “hurriedly distributing free visas” to Pakistanis. The misleading posts cropped out the festival context, presenting the crowd as a visa rush outside the South Korean Embassy.
Indian troll accounts running amok – this was the rush seen recently in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad for free passes to a K-pop music festival planned by the South Korean Embassy in Islamabad
It is not outside the South Korean Embassy but at a hotel and is not a line for visas https://t.co/EOXOqAk91p
— omar r quraishi (@omar_quraishi) May 3, 2026
Pakistani users and journalists swiftly pushed back, clarifying that the gathering was for a cultural event, not visa issuance. “It was K‑pop fever, not a visa centre,” one Islamabad‑based reporter noted, as disappointed fans shared images of being turned away after the event was cut short.
Officials emphasized that while South Korea does run cultural exchange and people‑to‑people programmes, Saturday’s event was simply a popular public festival that went viral because of the growing K‑wave in Pakistan.
The episode highlights how misinformation thrives on cropped visuals and sensational framing, turning a harmless cultural celebration into fake “breaking news.” Observers urged caution, reminding users that “a long queue in Islamabad doesn’t automatically mean visas.”
