KCON, the world’s largest Korean pop music and culture convention, has attracted more than 1 million fans over the past eight years, its organizer said Monday. According to organizer CJ ENM, the convention’s cumulative audience reached 1,069,000 over the weekend when the Korean wave, also called “hallyu,” festival was held in Los Angeles. KCON 2019 LA was held for four days from Thursday at LA Convention Center and Staples Center, drawing a record 103,000 K-pop fans, CJ Group said. The latest audience figure marked 10-fold growth over the inaugural KCON held in Irvine, California, in 2012 with 10,000 fans. CJ ENM has hosted KCON in North, Central and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania for +
The Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, the killing fields in Cambodia and Ground Zero (the site of the 2011 terrorist attacks on the U.S.) in New York are among world-famous sites of “dark tourism,” or travel to infamous places associated +
The threshold for luxury hotels has been lowered, with the concept of ‘hocance’, a combination of “hotel + vacation” becoming one of the most common forms of travel. Even if guests do not stay overnight, hotels are turning into a +
The boys of BTS may be on a break, but their music keeps on kicking. On Wednesday, their agency Big Hit Entertainment announced that three of the band’s releases are on Billboard’s 200 albums chart, which was updated on Tuesday. +
Big Hit Entertainment, the agency behind BTS, said it has acquired midsized agency Source Music, home to girl group GFriend. Under the recently completed acquisition, Big Hit disclosed that Source Music would become its subsidiary, but declined to reveal the +
Ophelie Cambay, an 18-year-old French tourist, looked absolutely thrilled as her long-cherished dream of attending a K-pop concert in Korea was about to come true. The girl, from Aix-en-Provence, southern France, is one of 88 French K-pop fans who came +
A free film festival is being held every Saturday evening under bridges that span the Han River in Seoul. Since July 20, the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) has been holding the “2019 Grand Movie Festival Under Han River Bridges” at +
Geunjeongjeon Hall, the largest hall at Seoul’s Gyeongbokgung Palace housing the Joseon Dynasty king’s throne, will be opened to the public this month for a limited time. Designated National Treasure No. 223, the hall is considered to have the essence +
K-pop superstars BTS went on a long-term break to recharge themselves following the band’s Billboard-topping back-to-back album releases, its management agency said Monday. Get your SOBA VIP ticket – in front of the stage “Group BTS will have its first +
KPOP artists with high popularity at home and abroad, including the group’s LOOΠΔ, A.C.E, ONEUS and Newkidd will make a splash on the stage of the “2019 Soribada Best K-Music Awards.” Get your SOBA VIP ticket – in front of +
BTS will hold a fan event with ARMY at Seoul Plaza on March 10. BTS started releasing 2080 puzzles sequentially on its official website(www.armypedia.net) on February 25. Fans who have found 2080 puzzles hidden around the world will answer questions about BTS and fill out ARMYPEDIA by writing, taking pictures +
Global K-pop phenomenon BTS has launched an online archive, inspired by its dedicated fans around the world, where their fans, known as Army, can get together to record memories from the band’s six-year career, the band’s management agency said Friday. “Armypedia” at www.armypedia.net has gone online and will officially go +
Girl band ITZY has taken K-pop fans by surprise by reaching the summit of one of the nation’s major music charts only 10 days after its debut. Korea’s music-only cable network Mnet said Thursday the five-member band had conquered its “M COUNTDOWN” chart with “Dalla Dalla.” Such a quick rise +
The debut album from a new boy group under BTS’s management agency has already scored 104,385 pre-orders ahead of its release next month, distributor Iriver said Friday. Tomorrow X Together’s album, “The Dream Chapter: Star,” achieved the milestone only two days after it became available for pre-orders Wednesday, Iriver added +
A transportation card ‘T-Money’ with the face of a member of the global star BTS will be released. Korea Smart Card, the publisher of T-Money, announced on the 22nd Feb that it will introduce seven “BTS Transparent T-Money” types that contain BTS images as their first T-Money in 2019. Korea +
Z-GIRLS, a K-pop girl band devoid of Korean, will debut on Saturday in the “Z-POP DREAM LIVE IN SEOUL” gig at Jamsil Indoor Gymnasium, Seoul. The team, managed by Korean agency Zenith Media Contents (ZMC), released a music video teaser for the debut song “What You Waiting For” on its +
Cop-comedy “Extreme Job” has stayed atop the box office for the fourth consecutive weekend, becoming the second-most-viewed film of all time Sunday, 28 days after it hit the local theaters. It remains to be seen whether the low budget film can attract another three million to break the record of +
The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on 19th Feb that it will recruit workers living in Seoul who will receive support for the Seoul-type travel voucher project starting in March. Seoul is offering travel opportunities to vulnerable people who give up their vacations at a cost to expanding their right to +
Parksal Company formed a group of beautiful artists with the value of ’empathy beyond languages.’ They looked for one foreign member as the last member. V-Square has held an audition for the Rendezvous project. Around 750 applicants applied for it and Vegas made it through the first round of auditions. +
Sitting in the Gangnam neighborhood in southern Seoul, nothing seems out of the ordinary about the venue — that is, until you step inside and see walls covered with posters and stickers that go all the way to the ceiling. As you take a seat, it quickly becomes clear why +
Heavy snow is expected in the Seoul metropolitan area tomorrow morning, requiring caution such as safety accidents on the way to work. The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) announced on 18th February afternoon that it will announce a preliminary snowfall weather special report in Seoul, Incheon, Daejeon, Sejong, southern Gyeonggi Province, +
EXO-CBX, a three-member sub-unit of popular nine-member K-pop boy band EXO, will hold special edition concerts in Japan in April. Its agency SM Entertainment announced on Saturday that the subunit will hold “EXO-CBX ‘MAGICAL CIRCUS’ 2019 ― Special Edition” concerts at Saitama Super Arena on April 16 and 17, and +
