For many K-Pop fans, concerts are a special highlight, and some of them even travel to other countries for them! Have you ever been to a K-Pop concert or a K-Pop festival? Especially for fans who like lots of different groups, festivals are an even bigger experience than solo concerts by individual groups. What could be better than seeing several Korean stars in a single evening?
For international fans, however, it's not that easy to attend a K-Pop festival. K-Pop artists are giving more and more concerts in Europe these days, but festivals outside of Asia are still few and far between. Today we're introducing you to the biggest of them, which take place once or several times a year:
KCON
KCON is a Korea Convention that first took place in California on October 13, 2012. So it can already look back on a 10-year history! KCON was created to give American fans a way to connect with each other and meet Korean stars. At the very beginning, five to six different K-Pop stars were always guests, while today it's more like seven to eight.
In 2014 and 2015, KCON was extended to two consecutive days, and in the following years it kept growing. By now it takes place several times a year in several different countries. The United States is part of it every year, and South Korea and Japan are also a fixed part of the program. Over the years, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, Australia and France have also been able to look forward to a visit!
This year (2022), KCON took place in Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and, from August to September, even 10 times in the United States!
Maybe it will come to your area one day too? European fans can hope as well, after all KCON has already been to France once.
You can find the official website here.
Music Bank World Tour
As a K-Pop fan, you surely know the music show “Music Bank”, on which K-Pop idols perform their new song every week.
As part of the Music Bank World Tour, the music show has been visiting countries all over the world since 2011. Every year the Music Bank Festival takes place in a different country and gives the fans there the chance to see several Korean stars live on stage. The festival is often even held in two countries a year!
So far, the Music Bank World Tour has visited Japan, France, China, Chile, Brazil, Mexico and, in 2018, Germany as well.
Since 2017, besides the performing artists, there have always been hosts as well, who guide the audience through the evening. So far these have also been well-known stars such as the actor Park Bo Gum, Irene of Red Velvet, Jeongyeon and Dahyun (Twice), Jeon Somi and, this year (2022), Rowoon of SF9.
KPOP.Flex
The KPOP.Flex festival took place for the first time on May 14 & 15, 2022 in Frankfurt, Germany. It made headlines months in advance because it is Europe’s first big K-Pop festival! All 44,000 tickets were sold out in less than seven weeks!
The extremely high demand led to a second festival day, May 15, being added spontaneously. In the end, over 65,000 tickets for both days were sold to K-Pop fans from 84 countries. If that isn't a clear message that European fans want more K-Pop events, what is?
So there was great joy when KPOP.Flex announced long before the event that the festival was going to become an annual event. On May 15, ticket sales for the next KPOP.Flex festival, over a year later, already started!
The festival takes place again in Frankfurt, Germany on June 17 & 18, 2023 and also visits London for three days - September 22-24, 2023! Thanks to the festival, European fans can hopefully look forward to a K-Pop event near them several times a year from now on.
Which stars will perform in 2023 isn't known yet, but since groups like IVE, Enhypen and NCT were represented in May, surely nobody will be disappointed!
You can find the official website here.
K-Pop World Festival
This festival is more of an annual talent competition, which has been organized by the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2011. It is meant to bring Korean culture and the culture of the participants together. Every year, preliminary rounds are held in different countries, in which teams can prove themselves in the categories of singing and dancing. The best participants are invited to South Korea to take part in the final.
This year (2022), for example, 46 teams (130 participants) competed against each other in Berlin, Germany in front of 300 spectators. The spectators could also try out the traditional Korean costume “Hanbok” and traditional Korean musical instruments.
The final takes place every year in the city of Changwon in South Korea.
As you can see, most of these festivals have been taking place for more than 10 years! Have you heard of these festivals or were you even there? Or is there another festival we absolutely should report on? Let us know!
