KCON, the world’s largest Korean culture convention and music festival, was held in Australia for the first time on 22 and 23 September 2017 at Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney.
Around 21,000 K-pop fans flocked to the two-day event showcasing everything about Korean lifestyle including K-fashion, K-beauty, K-food, K-dance and K-drama by day and then spectacular concerts with nine artists; EXO, Girls’ Day, MONSTA X, Cosmic Girls, PENTAGON, SF9, UP10TION, VICTON by night.
In this year’s KCON Australia, the host company CJ E&M cooperated with the Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange (KOFICE) on a special program to support the margins of society including people with disability, aboriginals and migrants.
Kyunghee Hannah Choi, team leader of Strategic business team in KOFICE said they invited around 30 marginalised people to the concert. By doing so, they want to show that K-Pop culture that we love does not have any barriers for anyone in societies.
Korean Australian Beck is a dwarf striker for Australia’s women’s football team and won a silver medal in the World Dwarf Games in Canada in August. Beck who came to KCON with her colleagues with the same disability said there are several obstacles for short statured to join a big event like KCON because it is hard for them to watch the show with big crowds standing by. However, KOFICE and CJ E&M provided them better arrangement and she was excited to watch the show with her mates.
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