K-pop Festival KCON 2020 Goes Digital with Live Concerts from Chungha, ATEEZ, ITZY, and More

K-pop fans around the world are in for a treat as the annual KCON festival is headed online! For the uninitiated, KCON is known as the world’s largest K-Culture convention and festival that celebrates Korean pop culture.

Since its inception, KCON has held festivals in Japan, Thailand, France, Australia, Mexico, the UAE and the USA, providing a place for Hallyu fans of Korean music, food, beauty, lifestyle, and drama to connect with each other and their favourite Korean artists. Past festivals have included major K-pop acts such as BTS, Twice, and NCT 127.

KCON:TACT 2020 SUMMER. (Image courtesy of KCON Japan)

Following the cancellation of both KCON 2020 NY and KCON 2020 LA due to the ongoing global COVID-19 situation, KCON has announced a partnership with YouTube and Shopee for their 2020 event, KCON:TACT 2020 SUMMER, which will be streamed live for a week from 20 June to 26 June. The event will consist of a mix of live and pre-taped performances, digital meet and greet sessions, and behind-the-scenes footage.

KCON:TACT 2020 SUMMER is available as a membership subscription exclusively on the Mnet K-pop YouTube channel with English subtitles for $19.99 per month where a portion of the proceeds will go towards UNESCO’s Learning Never Stops campaign.

Here’s a look at their full line-up of artists.

PARTICIPATING IN LIVE CONCERTS + MEET & GREET

The list of artists participating in live concerts and digital meet & greet sessions include Mamamoo, Monsta X, TXT, Iz*One, ITZY, Stray Kids, ATEEZ, GFRIEND, LOONA, Pentagon, AB6IX, SF9, Oh My Girl, The Boyz, N.Flying, VICTON, VeriVery, Cravity, Golden Child, ONF, ONEUS, and TOO. (Image courtesy of KCON Global)

PARTICIPATING IN LIVE CONCERTS OR MEET & GREET ONLY

The list of artists participating in only live concerts or digital meet & greet sessions include Chungha, Kang Daniel, ASTRO, (G)I-DLE, Natty, Kim Jaehwan, BVNDIT, Everglow, Nature, and JO1. (Image courtesy of KCON Global)

Each day of the event will typically consist of a 4-hour long live concert alongside artist meet-and-greets and behind-the-scenes footage. KCON is planning on recreating a digital experience for their in-person meet and greet sessions which is likely to include live chats, polls, and usage of VR and AR technology. They also have plans to provide multiple views of the performances so that fans can get specific views of members that they like.
.

How the event would run for the week on the Mnet K-pop YouTube channel. (Image courtesy of KCON Global)

KCON:TACT 2020 SUMMER will be available as a membership subscription exclusively on the Mnet K-pop YouTube channel. However, the livestream on YouTube will not be available for specific countries in Asia including Singapore.
.

Those in Singapore can livestream KCON:TACT 2020 SUMMER via Shopee. (Image courtesy of KCON Global and Shopee Singapore)

For us, we are still able to catch the event through Shopee as part of their very first Shopee Live K-pop Fest. As details are currently kept hush-hush, do check back via the Shopee app for more information to be revealed on 8 June 2020!

Until then, you can get yourself hyped and ready for the upcoming large-scale K-pop event by catching their KCON replay from past years here on the official Mnet K-pop YouTube channel!

For more information, click here.

Banner image courtesy of (1), (2), (3).