This year's KCON festival literally put in 110 percent this year. The 2014 version of the event, which went down last weekend at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, saw exactly a 110 percent increase in attendance from 2013, raising the total to 42,000 K-Pop fans. According to organizers, more than 40 percent of those attendees came from outside of California.
It hasn't exactly taken a lot for the festival to dramatically grow over the years however. The first edition of KCON took place in 2012 to a "scant" audience of 10,000 before rising to 20,000 during 2013. So yes, if the numbers stay on course, there should be 84,420 people at KCON 2015. Okay, maybe not, but KCON has quickly risen to become the United States' premiere K-Pop event and has attracted the big name acts that confirm it. This year's festival featured performances from Girls' Generation, G-Dragon, Teen Top and SPICA among many others. The amount of music and programming available at this year's event was also upped by nearly 30 percent according to promoters. This year marked the first that KCON featured multiple nights to accommodate all the acts performing.
"KCON has been an incredible success this year, especially with the support of the Los Angeles community," said Sang Cho, President of Asian entertainment network Mnet America. "We are proud to see KCON become a staple event that Korean pop culture fans look forward to every year."
Los Angeles is the de facto capitol for K-Pop in America, having also hosted the KPOP Festival during April.
