Global K-pop festival KCON to return to live concerts in May

The annual overseas K-pop concert series organized by entertainment giant CJ ENM will resume in-person this year after a two-year hiatus.

This year’s KCON will be the first on-site festival since the coronavirus crisis began three years ago. CJ ENM held the festival as online events in 2020 and last year.

The upcoming K-pop concert series will hit five cities around the world this year, including Seoul, Chiba, Chicago, Tokyo and Los Angeles. The lineups for the concerts have yet to be announced.

Starting with events titled, “KCON 2022 Premiere” at CJ ENM Center in Seoul on May 7-8, Makuhari Messe Hall in Chiba, east of Tokyo, on May 14-15 and Rosemont Theatre in Chicago on May 20-21, “KCON 2022 LA” will be held in Los Angeles in August. The concert series will wrap up its 2022 edition in Tokyo in October.

Marking the KCON’s 10th anniversary, CJ ENM will upgrade the concert series’ content reflecting the trends of Generation Z -- those born between the mid-1990s and the early 2010s -- and prepare programs tailored for each city’s local fans, according to the company. Some of the festival programs will also stream online.

Launched in 2012 in California as the world’s largest K-pop festival, KCON has been at the forefront of promoting Korean culture overseas and spans K-food, K-beauty and K-dramas.

Amid the increasing global popularity of K-pop and Korean cultural content, KCON offline events have taken place in nine global cities in North America, Europe and the Middle East, drawing some 1.1 million visitors.

Online events for “KCON:TACT” that were held five times over the last two years attracted some 22.4 million viewers.

By Jie Ye-eun (yeeun@heraldcorp.com)