{"id":111605,"date":"2025-08-02T00:20:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T00:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/111605\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T00:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T00:20:09","slug":"fans-head-to-downtown-la-for-k-pop-festival-nbc-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/111605\/","title":{"rendered":"Fans head to downtown LA for K-pop festival \u2013 NBC Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thousands of K-pop fans are headed to downtown Los Angeles this weekend for KCON, a three-day festival celebrating Korean pop culture through concerts, fan events and exhibitions.<\/p>\n<p>This weekend marks the 13th iteration of KCON. Since its founding in 2012, the festival has drawn millions of fans to Los Angeles each year, solidifying the city&#8217;s role as the event&#8217;s longtime home.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKCON has grown into a global phenomenon, and no city embraces it quite like LA,&#8221; Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky said.<\/p>\n<p>The three-day event is scheduled for Aug. 1-3 at the Los Angeles Convention Center and Crypto.com Arena. Each day includes a full convention with panels, workshops and interactive experiences, followed by nightly concerts.<\/p>\n<p>The festival will feature five different stages, including its newest X stage that will showcase up-and-coming K-pop artists. The festival is known for hosting BTS in one of their earliest U.S. appearances.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, the City Council declared Aug. 1 as \u201cKCON Day&#8221; in honor of the economic and cultural impacts of the festival and the global K-pop movement.<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, more than 5.9 million fans from more than 170 countries <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbclosangeles.com\/news\/local\/downtown-los-angeles-hosting-kcon-biggest-kpop-festival\/3470454\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">took part<\/a> in the celebration in Los Angeles. Officials say they expect even higher attendance this year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe economic impact of KCON and the global K-pop movement cannot be overstated,&#8221; Councilmember Curren Price said. \u201cIt&#8217;s a cultural exchange \u2013 an economic driver and a cultural reflection of Los Angeles&#8217; international reach.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Doane Liu, executive director of the city&#8217;s Tourism Department, said KCON stands out because it returns to Los Angeles every year, unlike most major conventions that rotate locations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe look forward to hosting KCON every year in the future too, and we&#8217;re working very closely with KCON to make sure that&#8217;s in ink,&#8221; Liu added.<\/p>\n<p>Consulate General Kim Young Wan of the Republic of Korea in Los Angeles joined council members and KCON organizers for Friday\u2019s presentation announcing the dedication.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour recognition of KCON has special meaning, not only to Koreans and to Angelenos, but also worldwide fans of all ages and all different backgrounds and all ethnicities,&#8221; Young Wan said.<\/p>\n<p>KCON has grown from 10,000 attendees in Anaheim at its inaugural year to reaching over 5.9 million fans across 170+ countries through in-person and digital platforms in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of K-pop fans are headed to downtown Los Angeles this weekend for KCON, a three-day festival celebrating&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":111606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1034,1582,276,2499,2961,224,5337],"class_list":{"0":"post-111605","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-art-and-culture","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-downtown-los-angeles","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-losangeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114956312573836177","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}