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Korea Herald

[Grace Kao] My experience at KCON LA 2025

I just attended KCON LA 2025 last week and found it invigorating, overwhelming and confusing. Let me explain. The festival grounds during the day had a variety of performance locations, including the Artist Stage, Meet and Greet Stage, X Stage, Busking Stage and Dance Stage. The Artist Stage held what were essentially mini-concerts of five or six songs by artists such as Lee Youngji, P1Harmony and Hwasa. The X-Stage featured newer groups such as 82Major, Kik5o, HitGS and Ifeye. The Meet and Greet Stage offered fans the opportunity for a closer interaction with some of the major groups, such as Riize and Zerobaseone. The Busking Stage offered informal Q&A sessions with lesser-known groups, and the Dance Stage included fast dance challenges among amateurs and some rookie group members. Each night, the M Countdown Stage was a three-hour concert with more than 10 artists. This took place at the LA Crypto Arena on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Headliners included NCT 127, MonstaX, Hoshi X Woozi of Seventeen, aespa, Nmixx, Zerobaseone and I-dle. KCON was invigorating and overwhelming because I've never seen so many acts in one place — 37 in total. I've also never listened to so much K-pop, and that's saying a lot. However, many of these activities were ticketed separately. The rules were complex, and I read them many times in the months ahead of KCON LA. The cheapest ticket was $36 for the 'festival grounds' for a single day. However, if you wanted to attend the festival grounds, artists' stage, evening concert and everything else at the premium level for a single day (not including the meet and greet), that ticket was $391. A 'meet and greet' with one group cost another $111. So, attending all events for one day, including three meet and greet premium tickets, would cost an astounding $724. The premium class of tickets for all events for all three days would cost about $2200! It is not cheap to be a K-pop fan, and it can also be confusing. Los Angeles resident Ann Marie Uy, 48, attended all 3 days with her son, niece and another family friend. This is her fourth KCON. 'Honestly, KCON is always such a disaster,' She remarked. Still, Uy and her family love K-pop. First-time attendee Susan Gervais, 50, who traveled from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, along with her daughter Kaitlyn, 21, found the lines 'confusing and disorganized, and the lines didn't seem to work.' She and others were policing the lines because the security guards gave conflicting advice. Kim Jeffers, 49, of Athens, Ohio, added that the 'lines were a bit disorganized.' Skylar D., 26, of Michigan, attended with two friends who thought there were line cutters and that people were disobeying rules, and said, 'This will probably be my last KCON.' In contrast, Landyn Wu, 22, who traveled from New Jersey, thought the festival grounds were 'well-organized and straightforward.' Warren Dumais, 32, coming from Missouri, wished that KCON continued its focus on K-pop. 'I don't use beauty products, so while I understand that others do and that K-beauty is part of the attraction of the Hallyu, I wished KCON focused more on K-pop.' Ha Vo, 69 and her daughter Christine Vo, 45, both of Orange County, enjoyed the K-Beauty booths. I overheard others talk about the missed opportunity of not including more K-drama events. According to KCON, 107 companies and 358 booths were represented. While some first-time attendees found that there were too many booths, repeat attendees told me that there were fewer booths this year than in previous years. Haley Van Degrift, 39, of San Francisco, said that the booths were 'a little too spread out, but I like it.' A 40-something attendee from Minnesota told me that tariffs had caused many vendors to skip KCON and that the K-beauty freebies were scant compared to previous years. The bag size requirements also caused mass confusion. The festival grounds required clear bags no larger than 30 centimeters by 30 cm by 15 cm, while The Crypto Arena limited bag sizes to roughly the size of a large phone. However, because Olive Young's booth distributed large shopping-size tote bags, procuring one meant you had to store it before the concert. I witnessed hundreds and hundreds of attendees lining up at a locker storage truck to check in their 'free bag' for $10. I saw that the storage area was inundated with Olive Young tote bags. Luckily, I dodged that bullet. Would I go back to KCON? It's a definite yes in terms of all the performances. There wasn't a single stage that I didn't enjoy. I also loved being among so many die-hard K-pop fans. However, I would advise that you read the bag policies carefully and plan accordingly.