Netmarble Cultural Foundation said on Sept. 8 it held the "2026 National e-Festival for Students with Disabilities" at Vivaldi Park Sono Calm in Hongcheon, Gangwon province.

The event runs for 2 days through Sept. 9. About 1,600 finalists and related participants are taking part, including students from special schools and special classes, supervising teachers, special-school administrators and parents.

Finalists were selected through regional preliminaries held nationwide from May to July that drew about 3,000 participants. This year's competition consists of 29 events, including 18 IT contests and 11 e-sports contests.

The e-sports contests include "Magumagu Remastered" for PC and "Everybody's Marble" for mobile. "FC Online", which had been a demonstration event through last year, was promoted to an official event this year, increasing the number of e-sports events to 11 from 10.

Winners in each category, excluding demonstration events, will receive awards from the education minister and the culture minister. Other awards include prizes from the head of the National Institute of Special Education, the head of the Korea Creative Content Agency, and the Netmarble Cultural Foundation's representative award, the Fair Play Award.

The venue is also running programs for participants, families and visitors. From 7 p.m. on Sept. 8, there will be a b-boy performance, a magic show and a quiz show. Visitors can also experience self-driving personal mobility rides, AI caricatures, virtual reality games, keyring making, a stamp tour and photo contest, and a match-prediction e-challenge.

Gi-uk Do (도기욱), head of Netmarble Cultural Foundation, said the event this year has created a venue to build capabilities needed in the era of artificial intelligence and digital transformation. He said the foundation will continue to pay attention to and support efforts to narrow students' information gaps and open up a new leisure culture.

The National e-Festival for Students with Disabilities is co-hosted by Netmarble Cultural Foundation, the National Institute of Special Education and the Korea Creative Content Agency, and sponsored by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Netmarble Cultural Foundation has participated as a co-host since 2009.