Korean festival K-Con opens for first time in three years

When Japanese boy group OWV started to sing out “You can call me artist,” the opening lyrics of BTS’s IDOL, they were met with cheer and wave from more than 10,000 audience who were gathered at Makuhari Messe, Chiba near Tokyo. The audience held smartphones, fans, and fluorescent tube lights to cheer on, as the concert started to kick off.

K-Con, the world’s largest festival celebrating Hallyu, or the Korean Wave, was held for the first time in three years since 2019 in Japan. The event, titled K-Con 2022 Premier Inn-Tokyo and held for two days on May 14 and 15, sold out 22,000 tickets (for two days) priced at 13,900 yen (around 138,000 won), reflecting the Japanese audience’s popularity for Hallyu. “The concert was smaller in scale in light of COVID situations, but we had more than 40,000 visitors to the venue which included smaller events,” said CN ENM, who hosted the event.

“I came as I wanted to experience Korean vibes because I can’t travel due to COVID. When travel restrictions are lifted, I can’t wait to visit Korea and go to the concert of Seventeen, my favorite group,” said Kicuchi, an 18-year-old resident of Saitama and travelled more than two hours on subway to attend the event.

The K-Con Convention, where fans could visit for Korean experience ahead of the concert, was also widely popular. Coffee food trucks were lined up outside the venue, which are well-known gestures by Korean fans for their support of stars. Viewers had to wait for more than one hour at booths to take sticker photos and try on Korean style makeup.

K-Con, which kicked off in Seoul earlier this month, will head to Los Angeles in August after Tokyo this month and again in Tokyo in October. Korean artists are scheduled to participate in the October event.


sanghun@donga.com