KCON LA 2026 officially opened Friday, August 14 at the Los Angeles Convention Center and Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Festival producer CJ ENM themed the event “Walk in SOUL CITY,” a play on South Korea’s capital, and expanded programming across K-pop, K-beauty, K-food and K-story offerings, including the first-ever Olive Young Festa K-Beauty Playground featuring 55 Korean brands.
The festival grounds opened at 10 a.m. PT with the Artist Stage, Dance Stage and Toyota Music Den Stage hosting multiple performers throughout the day, leading into the M Countdown concert at Crypto.com Arena.
KCON LA 2026 marks the first year daily headliners perform full hour-long sets rather than the abbreviated, TV-ready festival runs previously used. Since launching as a one-day event in Irvine, California in 2012, KCON has served as an American proving ground for acts including BTS, TWICE, SEVENTEEN and ATEEZ before they sold out stadiums and arenas independently.
Pre-festival activity included an industry party Wednesday hosted by HYBE America featuring boy bands &TEAM and Santos Bravos, pre-debut girl group SAINT SATINE, and cast members from the film “K-Pop: The Debut,” a Paramount and HYBE America film scheduled for theatrical release in February 2027. YEONJUN of TOMORROW X TOGETHER performed a special showcase for Billboard Live, while &TEAM held a session at the GRAMMY Museum.
Retailers including hello82, KPop Nara, Makestar and Araise staged near-daily signings and fan events with artists such as Wonho, ZEROBASEONE, izna, MEOVV, KickFlip and KiiiKiii, enabling direct fan meetings.
Source: Billboard
