After two years away, KCON is back and live for the first time in two years, and the global K-pop festival will feature some of the biggest acts to commemorate the return of live concerts, including the six teams that will compete on the upcoming survival show "Queendom 2," which will air in September.
The two-day "KCON 2022 Premiere" in Seoul will take place in May, and the event's organizer, CJ ENM, unveiled the entire lineup of musicians that will take the stage during the event on Tuesday.
On May 7-8, a total of 13 performers will take the stage at CJ ENM Studio in Seoul for the CJ ENM Studio Concert. The list contains well-known boy bands such as Highlight, Monsta X, and The Boyz, as well as up-and-coming acts such as STAYC, TO1, NMIXX, and NiziU.
Other acts performing at the Seoul concerts include the six female K-pop acts who will compete in the second season of Mnet's popular competition program "Queendom" – Brave Girls, Loona, Kep1er, Viviz, WJSN and soloist Hyolyn – as well as the six female K-pop acts who will compete in the first season of the popular competition program "Queendom." The premiere episode of "Queendom 2" will be shown on March 31.
It has been confirmed by CJ ENM that the "KCON 2022 Premiere" would be a series of preparatory concerts building up to the major event, "KCON 2022," which will take place in Los Angeles beginning in August and concluding in Tokyo, Japan, at the end of October. It will go to Makuhari Messe Hall in Chiba, which is east of Tokyo, on May 14-15, and the Rosemont Theatre in Chicago on May 20-21 after the first two performances of the "KCON 2022 Premiere."
KCON, which began in California in 2012 with the goal of becoming the world's premier Korean cultural event, has played a significant role in promoting Korean music, drama, beauty, and cuisine outside the borders of the country, as well as bringing K-pop and its singers closer to their abroad followers.
Taking place in nine different cities across North America, Europe, and the Middle East, KCON events have drawn an estimated 1.1 million attendees as of 2019, when the last on-site event was held. KCON events are held in response to the increasing global popularity of K-pop and Korean cultural content.
This year, in honor of the festival's tenth anniversary, CJ ENM will update the festival's programming to reflect the new cultural trends of Generation Z — those born between the late 1990s and the early 2010s — and plan customized programs for each location, according to the firm.
Taking into consideration the firm's previous experience with streaming the concert series online over the past two years, the company will webcast select programs during "KCON 2022" in Los Angeles and Tokyo this year.
