KCON's cumulative audience tops 1 million

[waves-of-light.livejournal.com]

KCON, the world's largest Korean pop music and culture convention launched, has attracted more than 1 million fans over the past eight years, its organizer said Monday.

According to CJ ENM, the organizer of KCON, the convention's cumulative audience reached 1,069,000 over the weekend when the Korean wave, also called "hallyu," festival was held in Los Angeles.

KCON 2019 LA was held for four days from Thursday at LA Convention Center and Staples Center, drawing a record 103,000 K-pop fans, CJ Group said.

The latest audience figure marked 10-fold growth over the inaugural KCON held in Irvine, California, in 2012 with the attendance of 10,000 fans, it noted.

CJ ENM has hosted KCON in North, Central and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania for the last eight years in an effort for the global spread of K-lifestyle. KCON is divided into two parts -- K-pop concerts and convention programs. KCON events held in the U.S. accounted for 60 percent of the cumulative audience.

During KCON 2019 LA, CJ ENM, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, KOTRA and other agencies jointly hosted a K-collection sales promotion event and exhibition at LA Convention Center for 40 selected Korean small and medium-sized companies. Notably, 28 beauty-related companies took part in the LA event seeking to expand their overseas sales. CJ ENM said a total of 257 SMEs from Korea have participated in KCON LA over the past six years, while noting it increased K-beauty and K-food content, in particular, this year.

The highlight of KCON 2019 LA was the K-pop concerts held at Staples Center on Saturday and Sunday featuring a total of 14 K-pop groups.

"With the cumulative audience topping 1 million, KCON has grown into the world's largest hallyu festival. KCON will continue to make efforts for mutual prosperity with small and medium-sized companies and the globalization of K-culture," a CJ ENM official said.

KCON, which was held in Japan in May and New York in July this year, will also be held in Bangkok from Sept. 28-29.





I think it's still going on in LA? There's an after party tonight?

source: Yonhap News

Comments

[hilary-faye.livejournal.com]

We just wrapped in LA and it was so much fun. I live in the area so I've been going since 2013. It's been kind of wild to watch it grow every year. The biggest downside is watching the prices go up and new stuff get tacked on to try and drain as much money out of these kids as possible but if you play the system right and know what to not waste your money on you can get through the entire weekend pretty easy. I don't think we paid face value for a single thing not even the wristbands or the hi touches so it was a pretty good year.

[camouflagecat.livejournal.com]

If you don't mind answering, what in your opinion is the right way to experience the event without paying yourself sick?

[hilary-faye.livejournal.com]

i don't really see a huge problem spending on the convention ticket and the concert at face value especially if you enjoy everyone in the lineup but this year we didn't even want to do that so we just used fb groups and stub hub and the like to pay way under.

it's mostly about not overpaying for artist engagements and definitely not wasting money on the packs. its too much of a crap shoot. especially now the way most groups don't even do an engagement and if you get a group you don't like or you can't sell off for hundreds of dollars you are out a lot of cash. we basically set a base price for ourselves through experience that an audience session is never worth more than $10 and a hi touch no more than $80. it's just frustrating when you used to get the concert ticket and the artist engagement packs for one price.

also waiting to buy any merch until the last day because they start having discounts and deals because they're trying to get rid of everything.

[cosmicdaze.livejournal.com]

i'll probably never go to kcon again just because it's a rookie fest at this point and i just don't keep up with enough new groups anymore. last year was the first and last year i went to kcon just for ONE performer (chungha, but i loved seeing seventeen again as well). but i've always had a lot of fun at the concert every time i went even if the convention left a lot to be desired for me personally.

it's a completely blatant cash grab now, though. even fans are greedy as fuck now. people were selling ateez hitouch passes for $500 lmao.

[hilary-faye.livejournal.com]

i got SO lucky that the only group i really wanted to meet this year was nflying because i got a hi touch for 40 bucks lmfao. i asked around about itzy and izone but people we're actually willing to pay upwards of $300 for something that legit isn't even worth it.

[otraera.livejournal.com]

Damn back in my day it was 100 to see Bts.

[veep-throat.livejournal.com]

Ateezs power

[veep-throat.livejournal.com]

Can they get kcon going in london 🙄

[shazz-chan.livejournal.com]

This please

[rougepoison.livejournal.com]

Went to my very first KCON in NY this year and honestly it was awesome. I went mainly for IZ*ONE and NU'EST but left a total ATEEZ stan. My sister and I were always turning to each other during their set like WTF WHY IS IT SO GOOD? WHERE WERE WE WHEN THEY DEBUTED? TXT were adorable too.

I want KCON Toronto and KCON Vancouver next please.