KCON Sets 2023 Dates for U.S., Japan & Thailand: See Which Cities the K-Pop Festival Visits

After marking KCON’s two-year in-person return online in 2022, the world’s largest K-pop festival has set 2023 dates for events in the United States, Japan and Thailand in the coming months.

Once again, KCON will host California’s flagship event, KCON 2023 Los Angeles, from August 18-20 at the Crypto.com Arena and LA Convention Center. Since 2015, with the exception of 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19, the festival’s West Coast iteration has been held at his Crypto.com Arena (previously known as the Staples Center) and throughout the LA Convention Center. 2023 will be his 10th in the city. Famous LA Live Campus.

Last year, KCON LA reportedly attracted 90,000 fans to participate in three days of conventions, panels, workshop meet and greets and concert activities featuring artists such as Stray Kids, ATEEZ, ITZY, The Boyz, Kep1er, and TO1. Reported.

After visiting Tokyo in October, KCON also revealed that it will host KCON 2023 Japan May 18-20 at the Makuhari Messe Convention Center in Chiba. The fest’s last visit was last year’s two-day KCON Premiere Chiba event, where K-pop boyband TO1 performed alongside J-pop artists such as JO1 and INI.KCON 2022 Japan was held at Ariake Arena in Tokyo. and featured K-pop and J-pop artists such as TO1, ATEEZ, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, fromis_9, LE SSERAFIM, NewJeans and Kihyun from Monsta X.

KCON Los Angeles and Japan will be attending KCON Thailand next month March 18-19 at the IMPACT Arena and IMPACT Exhibition Center in Muang Thong Thani in the northern suburbs of Bangkok. K-pop and J-pop artists such as TO1, ATEEZ, Kep1er, JO1, BamBam, iKON, (G)I-DLE are expected to participate in the festival.

KCON followed up with a press release saying that each location will have “signature programming and content tailored to each region,” and that KCON will be live-streamed globally with no regional restrictions.

Competition is heating up with new K-pop festival startups like last year’s KAMP and upcoming We Bridge Music Festival & Expo, as well as South Korean artists performing at long-running U.S. music festivals like Coachella, Lollapalooza and Governor’s Ball. Despite this, KCON has managed to thrive. It has maintained its attendance and audience engagement for over a decade.

“Starting with 10,000 spectators in 2012, KCON has now grown into the world’s largest K culture festival,” said Kim Hyun-soo, CJ ENM’s head of live entertainment business, in a statement. rice field. “This year’s KCON will meet fans from all over the world in Thailand, Japan and the United States, promoting the spread of K-pop and K-culture around the world.”