LOS ANGELES — Hours priorto doors would open, thousands of K-pop fans lined up in downtown Los Angeles, extending long city obstructs in the warm August sun. In pleated skirts and platform shoes, lugging the clear bags that have endupbeing arena staples, they danced and traded homemade stickerlabels, banners, bracelets and photocards. Inside was their paradise: an IRL area to commune over their URL enthusiasms.
If anything, the 2023 LA KCON was a microcosm of K-pop’s macro impact on the music market as a entire.
Held from Friday to Sunday at the Los Angeles Convention Center and surrounding Crypto.com Arena, an approximated 140,000 fans from all over the world wellknown their preferred K-pop idols throughout 3 days of panels, premium meet-and-greets, interviews, dance breaks, performances, and more.
Inside the convention center, fans brought lightsticks of their preferred groups, revealed off DIY t-shirts with basic, direct mottos like “I HEART MINGI”, gathered stickerlabel books and K-beauty items, and lined up for tteokbokki.
KCON began 11 years ago in Irvine, California, illustration 10,000 individuals to its inaugural event of Korean culture, states Steve Chung, chief international officer of organizers CJ ENM. Now it’s a international occasion, taking location in several nations: So far in 2023, KCON has hit Thailand, Japan and the U.S.
“We’ve invited something like half a million individuals in those (11) years all throughout the world,” he states.
In Los Angeles, panels were held on K-pop songwriting and cup sleeve productions (K-pop fan occasions are held at coffeeshops on an idol’s birthday, anniversary, or some other unique date). Up-and-coming groups like NMIXX led dance classes on one phase, while another phase enabled novice groups to present themselves to a broader audience.
Over the course of the weekend, The Associated Press spoke to an extraordinary variety of fans who, amongst them, drove 12 hours straight from Utah, flew in from the U.K. and South America and represented a variety of ages, genders, races, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
“The culture of inclusiveness is big,” stated 40-year-old Annya Holston from Florida who got into K-pop through her child. “We’ve made so lotsof goodfriends, being here.”
At $500 a day, premium tickets permitted guests to gainaccessto a “Red Carpet” location, where acts presented for pictures and addressed 2 or 3 concerns in a 30-minute