** Disclaimer. This is my experience for KCON LA 2026. Each person had their own experiences. Please feel free to leave a comment of your experience if you experience something different or would like to share something. **
KCON LA is the biggest K-pop event held in the US. The convention brings K-pop idols, Korean brands, and K-pop fans together in Los Angeles. A 3-day event, the event starts in the daytime with a convention held at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Fans can explore new brands, see their favorite artists perform up close, and do fan events. At night, a concert is held at the Crypto.com Arena. As the biggest K-pop event in the US, the event also brings in town some of the most popular or up-and-coming K-pop bands. Some noticeable bands in recent times that participated in KCON early in their career before hitting it big include ATEEZ, ENHYPEN, and BOYNEXTDOOR.
Although KCON LA has been running for many years, every year is different. Every year, KCON changes benefits, how things are run, which hall the convention is in, etc. So although the essence is the same, many things can be different. Last year, for example, you can buy fan meeting tickets separately. This year, however, everything was combined into one (or both) of the premium ticket tiers so you had to buy the premium ticket in order to participate.
I think the hardest things to adjust to this year was the way each day was ran differently and the queue system. Every day, the security staff let people in differently — there was no consistency. On the first day, they let people in row by row. On the second day, they just let everyone go and it caused safety hazard because everyone started running as soon as it hit 10AM. On the third day, they let people go two rows at a time. It was dangerous — especially since we had to go up the stairs in order to enter the convention. The queue system did not work. I queued for the Olive Young Booth all three days. On the first day, I didn’t get called until around 5:30PM. By then, the convention was almost closed, the queue line was still long and they were no longer letting people in. The second day, I wasn’t even called. The third day, I went to go and talk to them and they said they we didn’t have the queue. KCON announced on instagram that we HAD to queue if we wanted to do a booth that had the queue system. However, they did not follow that and many people went based on first come first serve. They let go of the rope, people literally ran in and one of the staff started yelling and chasing the people. Then they closed the booth again. Due to the stress of it all, I eventually gave up and ended up never getting to do the Olive Young Booth. I think KCON would have been better without the queue system. It was a complete failure.
Other changes KCON made included combining the fan meeting stage with the Artist Stage. They claimed that the Artist Stage would hold the fan meeting, performances, and the high wave session. This stage would be extended to 1-hour. And now, fans can spend 1-hour with their favorite artist. However, when attending the actual event, the artists ended up spending only around 35-50 minutes on stage– similar to last year. And there were little fan meeting events happening. Some artists did longer fan events, like P1HARMONY. However, most groups did a quick event then quickly moved onto their next performance. The events held were also very similar to (if not the same as) the events held at the artist stage last year. Last year, fans could attend the artist stage, meet and greet, and m countdown to see their favorite artists. This year, everything was shortened and the meet and greet stage was removed — making many fans feel as if they had little opportunity to see their favorite artist. Also, Premium ticket holders were expected to line up at 3:10PM for the M Countdown concert sound check. This meant many people who had Premium tickets would miss the last artist stage and the red carpet.
Although the Artist Stage was not longer and better as they advertised, it still allowed fans to see their favorite artists perform. Some fan events held at the artist stage included a chance to do a dance battle, staring contest, participate in the call my name segment, or the treasure hunt session. Each artist had a different activity and the fan events varied. The fan events were held in between performances. Winners of the dance battle and staring contest won a special gift from the artist. The special gift included a signed album or a special one of a kind group selfie photo.
Each artists performed 1-2 songs in the walkway between the VIP Premium and Premium pits. The artists went through the crowd, threw signed balls, gave hi-fives, and some even took selfies with the fans. After each artist performed (excluding Yeonjun’s special stage), VIP Premium fans were able to do a hi-wave session with the artist backstage.
Last year, the VIP pit seemed too big. But somehow, this year, they managed to make it even bigger. The VIP pit was in the center right in front of the stage. Then there was a walk way that surrounded the outside perimeter of the VIP pit. This was where the artist walked during one or two of their songs. Then the Premium pit surrounded the VIP pit and the artist walk way. Since the VIP and Premium pits were so big and empty, general ticket holders were pushed all the way to the back perimeter of the room. They could barely see anything. Many people said that they were too far back, could barely see the artist, and the TV’s were too small so they couldn’t see anything on the screen either. After hearing these complaints, I went to the back of the GA pit and confirmed that I, too, could barely see the screen and the artist. I had to zoom in all the way on my phone to see the artist. And by then, everything was super grainy.
This year, the X stage (previously known as the KCON Stage) was renamed to be the Toyota Music Den Stage. This stage is where up and coming artists perform. The stage was renamed because Toyota was sponsoring the stage this year. Compared to last year, it felt as if this stage was upgraded. There was now a large TV in the middle of the stage, making it super easy to see what was happening if you were not in the first few rows. And I am not sure if it was only me, but the sound for the stage also felt a lot clearer. This stage was accessible to anyone with a KCON convention ticket. Strategically placed in the main hall, this stage exposed the artists to anyone passing by. Some artists performing at this stage included ONE PACT, KEYVITUP, RESCENE, NEXZ, and MODYSSEY. They also held some events here this year like the K-FOOD Messenger Talk Show with Edward Lee and Matthew from Zerobaseone and and an event with Illit.
The first artist I caught at the Toyota Music Den Stage was ONE PACT. ONE PACT consists of former Ciipher member Tag and Boys Planet contestants Jay Chang, Jong Woo, Seongmin, and Yedam. They have already built a large international following before their performance at KCON. Notably, while waiting for One Pact to perform, I saw that many of the fans around me were fans from Japan. They were carrying ONE PACT’s photocard, had signs, and were excitedly talking about ONE PACT’s upcoming performance. ONE PACT also had a lot of US fans. They had previously toured the US in 2025 for their “THE NEW WAVE” tour. Jay Chang had also just finished his solo US tour before joining his members for KCON LA. ONE PACT was a band that I had been meaning to see live so it was cool to finally see them perform at KCON LA. They were really talented and I found myself really liking their song, “좋겠다”.
The second artist I caught at the Toyota Music Den stage was KEYVITUP. KEYVITUP is a new boyband that debuted earlier this year. They were the first boyband to debut under Kim Jae Joong’s label, iNKODE. The members consists of Hyunmin, Taehwan, Sena, Jaein, and Rukia. Known for their stable vocals, I was super excited to see them perform. They performed their debut track, “KEYVITUP” and their second song, “Best One”. They also performed a cover of ATEEZ’s , “Adrenaline”.
If you wanted to check out booths other than Olive Young, Toyota, and the Kuromi booth, you had to go downstairs to Kentia Hall. Many people did not know this. There was a large sign on top of the stairs pointing out where the Kentia Hall was but I guess many people missed it? I thought it poorly label once we got downstairs. I, and multiple people, could not find the entrance. We all kept walking and eventually we found the entrance. It would have been nice if it was labeled like the exit doors or if there were people directing you to the entrance.
On the first day, it was almost completely empty downstairs. When talking with the vendors, they said that not many people have come downstairs yet so they were waiting for people. This also meant that many of the artists visiting didn’t have much visibility. I wanted to visit the Artist booths and check out the vendors so I went downstairs. I just happened to stop by cosmosy’s booth right before they were planning to visit their booth. Their staff told us that the girls were going to stop by soon so I wandered around a little bit then came back when the girls came out. They greeted the fans, signed the posters hanging at their booth, then did a hi-bye session before leaving. cosmosy is a four-member global girl group that just debuted at the end of 2024. The band consists of members Himesha, De_Hana, Kamion, and A’mei.
Other than cosmosy, I also kept running into RESCENE. RESCENE is one of the hottest girl group in South Korea right now. They became famous after their YouTube video for the “Garyu” trend went viral. Since then, their songs have risen on the charts and they have won their first music program win. They also just released a remake of KARA’s song, “Pretty Girl”. When I was walking around the Kentia Hall I kept walking into them. They stopped by each booth and talked to the vendors/took photos as they were the K-Collection official artist this year. If you participated in the stamp mission, you had the chance to win RESCENE merch! Last year I won HITGS merch! It was also really fun discovering new brands, beauty products, talking with the vendors, etc. I super recommend giving it a try next time!
After the convention ended, I made my way back to my hotel and dropped my things off, ate some food, and returned for the M Countdown Stage. The M Countdown stage is the big concert held every night at the Crypto.com Arena. M Countdown is the name of the famous MNET music program in South Korea. CJ E&M owns MNET. As CJ E&M is a big part of KCON, they also bring their music program to KCON. It is because of M Countdown that KCON is able to bring so many artists to to KCON. Many artists perform on the major music programs to get publicity for their bands and music. This year, I noticed that MNET made sure to bring the bands of the 3 hosts of the music program: Park Gun-Wook of Zerobaseone, So Jung-Hwa of Treasure, and Lee Kye-hoon of KickFlip. Because of this, Zerobaseone, Treasure, and KickFlip were all part of the KCON lineup.
The highlight of Day 1 was undoubtedly &TEAM’s stage, along with Wanna One’s comeback performance. A significant portion of the audience, myself included, attended KCON specifically to see &TEAM perform. I have followed the group since their formation on &Audition (and before that, I-LAND), and it has been rewarding to witness their growth and progress over time.
It was disappointing that they performed only two solo songs and one collaboration song at M Countdown. Given that &TEAM has primarily performed in Asia, fans in the US had been anticipating this opportunity for a long time, which made the limited setlist especially disappointing. I even met people who came from places like Australia and New Zealand just to see &TEAM at KCON LA!
I was puzzled by the choice to perform “Rush” for the M Countdown stage. I had expected “Back to Life,” given that it is their most recent release and marked their first Korean title track. It was also a super popular song with many Kpop cover dance groups covering the song. My best guess is that “Rush” was selected because it hadn’t been performed at a KCON M Countdown show, but with a catalog that includes tracks like “War Cry,” “Firework,” “We on Fire,” “Mismatch,” “Samidare,” and “Go in Blind,” the choice was still surprising and hard to comprehend for me. I wish they had performed “Rush” at the Artist stage and performed “Back to Life” or “Mismatch” at the M Countdown stage instead.
As a long time K-pop fan, it was great to see familiar faces! We all screamed out as Wanna One took the stage. In university, I used to listen to “Energetic” all the time! Whenever I hear it, it reminds me of my long hours of drive to and from uni. And as a pre-debut NU’EST fan, it was great to see Minhyun again!
I really enjoyed TREASURE’s stage! It was filled with so much energy! I felt as if they were really living in the moment. Their stage was really interactive and did a great job with the 360 stage. It was my first time seeing them perform live! I have been to iKON’s concert before (it was also where I first saw TREASURE! They were sitting right in front of me!), and TREASURE’s performance reminded me a lot of their concert. It made me realize that the way they perform, use the stage, etc. is a unique style of YG.
An artist that I kept running into was MEOVV. MEOVV (pronounced meow) is a five-member girl group from The Black Label. They debuted in 2024. I just so happen to have a very MEOVV day during Day 3 of KCON. I was at their Artist Stage, their sound check, and then I saw them at M Countdown. If I was a MEOVV fan, I think it would have been the best day ever. It was so fun to see their stages. I really liked their most recent comeback and think they are really talented. It was so cool to see how much they have grown from last year.
Something that really confused me this year was the Pre-show. I can only recall one artist performing. On the third day, I was expecting ONE PACT, MODYSSEY, cosmosy, and So!YoON! to perform. However, only ONE PACT performed. And on the first day, only from20 and HELLO GLOOM performed. That really surprised me. Last year, all the small font artists performed for the Pre-show. Since only one artist performed, it was really disappointing. I think the artists missed out on the opportunity to perform to a large crowd and get their music known by a wider audience.
An artist that many fans were excited to see was EVAN (previously Heesung of Enhypen). He shocked the entire K-pop industry when BELIFT LAB announced unexpectedly that he would be leaving Enhypen and starting a solo career. They also announced that he would be changing his name from Heesung to EVAN. First introduced to the world through the highly popular and successful survival show, “I-Land,” fans were devastated when it was announced that he would be leaving Enhypen. As this marks his first solo performance and events in the US, many fans were curious to see how he would perform on stage as a solo artist. A few of the people around me in the pit were EVAN (and Enhypen) fans. They said that they came out to support EVAN as they are huge fans and saw him when he was still a part of Enhypen. Although he has left the group, they still wanted to show support to EVAN and give him strength.
EVAN performed three songs. He performed his solo tracks “Ride or Die” and “Overflow”. he released these two songs right before KCON. He also did a cover of Harry Style’s “As it was”. He channeled his emotions through the song and did his best to convey the messages during his performance.
One of the artist that I was really looking forward to seeing this year was JO1. JO1 is a Japanese boy band that was formed through the first season of Produce 101 Japan. Last year, I saw them perform and they didn’t stick out to me much. However, this year, I was really looking forward to seeing them and hopefully getting good photos of them. Their fans thanked me for taking photos of JO1 last year and it made me really curious about JO1 and their music.
I ended up really liking their songs, “Sakura”, “WATCHA DOIN’”, “ANIMAL”, and their entire set during the artist stage! Their performances were so good, their english was really good, their energy was awesome, and I felt like I really got to see their personalities this time! Did I get photos of JO1? No, I was too busy vibing and cheering them on.
This year, the most talked about headliner was definitely TXT. TXT is short for Together X Together. They were the first boy band to debut under Big Hit Entertainment after BTS and drew a lot of attention for this fact alone. Debuting in 2019, they have grown a lot since their debut days. Originally debuting with a young and youthful image, TXT has involved to have more complex and mature songs like “LO$ER=LO♡ER”, “Deja Vu”, “0X1=LOVESONG (I Know I Love You) feat. Seori”, and “Good Boy Gone Bad.” This marked their first appearance and performance at KCON LA. Being a popular group that usually performed and headlined their own concerts, many fans were surprised that such a large group was announced as the headliner for KCON this year. You could feel the tension and excitement in the room change as soon as they announced that TXT was the next performer taking the stage. Fans were so busy cheering for TXT that they didn’t even let the MC finish their introduction and speech. You could definitely feel that a majority of the people attending M Countdown Day 3 was there for TXT. People screamed, sung along, and shouted out the fan chants throughout TXT’s entire performance. It was surreal experience. I can’t believe I got to see TXT up close! And only for $200! Thank you to the people who sold me the tickets on StubHub!
Some other notable performances that I saw included Santos Bravos, ALLDAY PROJECT, KO1KEYZ, Hiipe Princess, KickFlip, and NEXZ. Santos Bravos was one of the artists that people were really looking forward to seeing. I missed their Artist Stage because I went to see the Toyota Music Den first but I finally got to see them at M Countdown. Many of the people sitting around me was there for Santos Bravos. It was cool to see them perform and do a collaboration stage with &TEAM! They performed it so well and it really felt cohesive. KO1KEYZ really surprised me! They were so in sync and their performance was awesome! Good luck to them! I am definitely interested in what kind of music they will produce in the future. Last year, I saw ALLDAY PROJECT from the nose bleeds. This year, I saw them up close! And Bailey came to my section a few times. It was really cool to see their aura. I hope they get to release more songs soon.
That pretty much summed up my KCON LA 2026 experience. It was a festival of little to no sleep, lots of waiting for artist stages to begin or in line for things. The queue system that KCON implemented this year was a complete failure for me. And I really hope they get rid of it. But I really appreciate that they actually honored the fast pass this year. Last year, they did not and general tickets were let in earlier than fast pass attendees. I also appreciate that we were let in at 8AM to line up and let in at 10AM sharp. For most part, I had a great experience. However, some things could be improved. Like, make the VIP premium and premium pits smaller so fans and artists can see and interact together. And include more food lines. It was nice that the food was indoors this year. However, it does not make any sense that there were literally only two lines for thousands of people. I was not able to try any of the food because the line was so long. This year, I just hung around the artist stage because I had premium tickets for all three days and I wanted to make the most out of it. But if I get to attend next year, I would try to explore the convention more.