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The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is all set to host its first ever KCON festival in Boulevard Riyadh City on September 30. The announcement came from the Kingdom's Ministry of Culture on September 8, 2022.
KCON will be a two-day event that will see the participation of esteemed Korean artists like ATEEZ, NewJeans, THE BOYZ, PENTAGON, RAIN, SUNMI, STAYC and more.
The Saudi Press Agency reported that the festival will include an exhibition to shed light on Korean culture as well as a special zone for selling Korean products.
The event is resportedly being hosted as part of an agreement between the Saudi Ministry of Culture and the Korean CJ ENM Company. CJ ENM said in a statement:
"Saudi Arabia is a young country where a half of the population is under 30 years old, and K-pop is highly popular online particularly among young people."
The statement continued:
"It recently announced Saudi Vision 2030 ― an economic and social reform plan made for its economic diversification ― and Korea is one of its partners. Geographically, it connects Asia, Africa and Europe. So we decided to hold KCON in Saudi Arabia, believing Korean culture might be able to expand beyond the region with its organization."
A CJ ENM official said:
"Over the past 10 years, KCON has played a pivotal role in globalizing Korean culture in the U.S. and Japan, the countries with the largest entertainment markets. Now, we will strive to broaden its horizons further to Middle East and Europe."
Korean-artists lineup announced for KCON SA
The Ministry of Culture for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also shared the artist line up for its first edition of the global phenomenon that is KCON.
The 2 day event will see some of the biggest names of the Korean music industry shake a leg at the festival in the capital city of Riyadh.
Day 1 i.e., September 30, will see performances from the K-pop boy groups P1Harmony, PENTAGON, and THE BOYZ and K-pop girl-group SECRET NUMBER, soloist SUNMI as well as the K-pop legend RAIN.
The second day of the event i.e., October 1, will witness K-pop groups ATEEZ, ONEUS, STAYC, T01 and K-pop Monster Rookies NewJeans along with soloist HYOLYN.
About the Annual International Korean Cultural Festival
KCON is an annual convention held in locations across the world, organized by CJ E&M. It was first held in Southern California in 2012 and has since expanded to ten countries as of 2022.
The aim was to establish an annual Korean flagship event that would improve the experience of American fans by providing them an affordable way to connect with artists and professionals from the K-pop music industry as well as other K-pop fans in the States. The convention has contributed to the popularity of some of the biggest names in K-pop today.
In 2015, the event was held in Japan and then went on to announce the first KCON USA on the East Coast. 2016 saw the festival being held in the Middle Eastern countries of UAE followed by France in Europe.
The event went live in 2020 with the onset of the Covid pandemic with KCON:TACT, which was held from June 20 to June 26 via YouTube, AISPlay and Shopee.
The second and third seasons were held in October 2020 and March 2021.
The popularity of the festival has led to several other K-music conventions being hosted as well.
KCON was held at Los Angeles' Crypto Arena on August 19-21 this year. According to Billboard, over 90,000 fans attended the event live.
The popularity of these conventions and other similar festivals like Head in the Clouds have assured huge crowds and the attendees enthusiasm to enjoy multiple artists, thereby proving how much K-pop's audience has grown in recent years. While solo tours are wonderful and important to each artist, it is these festivals that are the true barometer of K-pop's international reach and of the potential for Korean artists to continue growing on the global stage.
