KCON Will Bring K-Pop Festival Online For KCON:TACT 2020 Summer

While K-pop fans have looked to the annual KCON festival as their Mecca for all things Korean-pop culture since 2012, coronavirus concerns have moved the world’s largest K-culture convention online.

KCON announced today, May 13, their newly created KCON:TACT 2020 Summer. The first-of-its-kind event aims to bring a similar concert and convention experience digitally to fans at home. For seven full days, KCON:TACT will bring live and pre-taped content including live performances from K-pop acts, behind-the-scenes content, meet-and-greet sessions, influencer-led panels, collaborations and more.

The technology around KCON:TACT is also set to be particularly impressive. In a press release, KCON shares that their digital festival will include around “30 artists and influencers who fans will be able to interact with via live video chats, live polls, and much more.” KCON:TACT is also said to be a “highly interactive” experience with live streams providing English subtitles and incorporating VR and AR technology. No artists or influencers have been announced so far.

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While information about pricing or ticket sales were not available in the announcement, KCON did note that a portion of all proceeds will go to UNESCO’s Learning Never Stops campaign helping children impacted by COVID-19 around the world to continue their education.

Previous to this year, KCON had boasted year-over-year growth for the Korean-pop culture festival that started as a one-day event in California in 2012 and grew to be a bi-costal affair with more than 158,000 attendees gathered between two days in New York and four days in Los Angeles. Past festivals have featured crossover acts like BTS, TWICE, NCT 127, Monsta X and more, while last year’s fest included standouts from Seventeen, MAMAMOO, NU’EST, Loona, ATEEZ, ITZY and more.

KCON:TACT 2020 Summer will take place from June 20-26 and will stream on the Mnet K-Pop YouTube channel.