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KCON LA 2023: Recap & Review

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KCON LA 2023This year’s KCON will live in infamy for a number of reasons: outrunning the remnants of a rare hurricane on my way home, testing positive for covid a day after, etc etc.

However, this craziness doesn’t mean I don’t have highlights and commentary to share! For the first time, KCON LA’s concerts extended to three nights. Due to scheduling and interest level (we’d already seen many of night three’s acts multiple times), we opted to attend Friday and Saturday only, which ultimately proved fortuitous given Hurricane Hilary’s arrival. I’m a bit irked I didn’t get to see The Boyz’ Lip Gloss and Riize’s stage debut in person, but this was my seventh KCON so I feel like I’ve already experienced a lot through the years!

Below, I’ll share my highlights and concerns from the two days we attended — along with some short clips from the experience.

And if you’re interested in previous recaps, click here: 2016 // 2017 // 2018 // 2019 // 2022 Pt.1 // 2022 Pt.2 

HIGHLIGHTS

1. The convention’s “KCON Stage”

Overall, the management of the convention was horrendous this year (more on that below), but their best decision was to elevate the KCON Stage to a level the audience could actually see — regardless of where you were standing. I can’t overstate the importance of this. So often at KCON, you’re struggling for a view — fighting against everyone’s phones held up to capture their favorite idol.

We were quite close for most of the acts on the KCON stage, but even further back you could see the performances well. This stage was a mix of interviews/games and showcase performances. I loved being able to see old favorites (VERIVERY, WayV, Cravity) and groups I didn’t know as well (NMIXX, 8TURN). Honestly, this area should be expanded even further in the future. After years of going to KCON, I’m not interested in most of the advertisement booths but I am interested in seeing the idols perform and interact.

2. The Pre-shows

I was very happy to see the showcase artists (Limelight, 8TURN, VERIVERY, Craxy) get a chance to perform on the main KCON stage prior to each night’s concert. This was a great way to give lesser-known acts a spotlight. I mean, they flew halfway around the world for this!

3. Taemin

I don’t mean this as a putdown to any other acts because everyone at KCON was very talented, but Taemin is just on another level. I mean, I knew this already. I’ve been lucky enough to see SHINee in 2017 and SuperM in 2020, but watching him on his own there’s no denying his sheer magnetism. Even from the nosebleed section, this was clearly evident. I’m forever grateful he performed Criminal and Move. He had the audience in the palm of his hand the entire time.

4. IVE

IVE was the group I was probably most excited to see because I’ve loved their music so much. I’m sad we didn’t get After Like (that must sound incredible in a stadium), but their I Am “dream stage” was predictably electrifying. There’s nothing like hearing that kind of song in the setting it’s designed for.

5. ZEROBASEONE

I’ve grown to really appreciate ZB1’s debut album and the members are very charming. Their popularity in the arena was unreal. MNET’s survival-show-to-idol-group pipeline is still churning at full power.

6. Rain

I guess this might be controversial to some people? Reports of a “black ocean” are making their way around the internet, but the response I saw was no different from any of the other acts with material less-known to the fans in the arena. People in our section seemed to be enjoying his set, and I was definitely one of those people. I’ll always jump at the chance to see a K-pop legend in action, regardless of his abilities (or lack thereof) as a CEO. I mean… I saw Rainism performed in person! That’s pretty darn cool.

7. Kep1er’s “Back to the City”

I’m not a big fan of most of Kep1er’s music, but I do love Back to the City and I was delighted that they performed it!

Other Highlights

Xikers’ Do Or Die is such a banger.
So is INI’s Fanfare.
And so is Limelight’s Madeleine.
ATEEZ’s Wonderland was downright operatic.

CONCERNS

1. Convention management/layout

After several years of improvement, KCON’s 2023 management was godawful. There’s no other way to say it, really. Despite this being their biggest year yet, they opted to book the smaller half of the convention center, meaning less entrances for more people. I’ve always given KCON the nickname “linecon,” because the majority of your time is spent waiting in lines or waiting in crowds. However, the payoff is usually worth it.

Lines to enter the venue took nearly two hours, with no real management or order. We were standing under freeway overpasses, around the block and all over the place. At one point, we had to stand in front of some religious nut yelling at us about the “sins of idolatry” through a megaphone for a good hour or so. We did this all before the tropical storm struck. I can’t imagine what that was like!

Making matters worse, KCON didn’t allow early check-in this year and each convention day required its own check-in. So, we got to enjoy these endless lines every morning. Chances of experiencing anything scheduled for the first hour or two of the convention were pretty much scrapped unless you wanted to start lining up hours in advance. There seriously has to be a better way to do this. Are all conventions so bad with lines? I felt like we were being herded like cattle.

For whatever reason, KCON also did away with their food street, making options for meals quite limited. This forced everyone into the venue’s horrible “galaxy cafe,” a sub-cafeteria-quality experience where they will gladly charge you upwards of 25$ for what must have cost pennies to make. Eight dollars for a fountain drink? You’ve got to be kidding. And don’t even think about leaving the convention to eat outside unless you’re eager for another hour-long wait to get through bag check again!

Sadly, this mismanagement reduced the opportunities for people to attend the activities and stages they had actually paid for, which is a shame. KCON has steadily streamlining their policies over the last few years, so I don’t know what went wrong this year. It reminded me of 2016.

2. Repetitive line-up

This isn’t a complaint about any single act since I’m a fan of them all. But as someone who attends KCON every year I’m a bit disappointed by how their performing line-ups seem a bit stagnant. Of course all the MNET groups have to be there (whether they’re K-pop or not), but almost half of the weekend’s line-up was a repeat from last year. Obviously these big groups have tons of fans that bring in the ticket sales, but I’d love to see more diversity next year.

2023’s Showcase Stages were a great step forward in this regard, so hopefully they’ll continue the trend. Repetition of acts was the biggest reason we decided to go for two days instead of all three.

18 thoughts on “KCON LA 2023: Recap & Review”

  1. Love a lot of the groups, but there’s just something about Taemin solo on a stage in front of a large enthusiastic crowd performing his iconic songs.
    Special shout-out to Ateez, IVE and Everglow for the electrifying performances, they sure know how to get the party going

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    • Given the fact that The Boyz apparently landed at LAX just an hour or two before the concert started doesn’t bode well.

      Then there was the year they messed up the passports so a bunch of artists were turned back after they landed at the airport!

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      • how does that even remotely work? you have korean passport, you can enter USA. Unless its because they are doing business here? Since those need approval

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      • The street food was there for Day 1 & 2 it was out on the balcony by the Kcon merch booth. I had an amazing Bento box and melon soda from one of the tents. They were closed for Day 3 due to the rain. Also, for Day 3 they allowed us to bring in umbrellas etc. And had a lot of the lines and all of the bag checks under shelter.

        Personally, I don’t mind if some of the lineup is the same because the songs are different. And I was excited to see many of the groups I hadn’t seen before yet like Everglow, (g) idle, Ive, ZB1, WayV, Xikers, VeriVery and more. I was also thrilled to finally see Taemin perform Move live, he didn’t perform it when I saw SuperM.

        Organization wise they were a mess Day 1 and 2. Day 3 was loads better. And I too wish we could’ve checked in for the whole weekend at once like most conventions. This is the 1st I’ve been to where we had to check in daily. I did not like it. I also didn’t like that there was no package for all of the days in the pricing which is also a 1st for the conventions I’ve been to. I wish the set up would be much closer to Vid con where they have multiple stages with seats on the convention floor because Day 1 from 9 am until 10:30 I sat a total of 40 minutes which was rough. Overall the soreness was worth it and was a very fun show.

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  4. Ah what a shame. You missed THE BOYZ’s ‘Passion Fruit’ unit stage as well. That would have been a great performance to see live. But I’m glad you’re able to attend and enjoy.

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  5. Totally agree about the organization, it was atrocious. But I was so so happy to see Taemin and WayV. The entire arena singing along to Love Talk was such a great experience and the energy during Taemin was unforgettable.

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  6. Yay, glad to see you did a review this year! I wasn’t able to go, so I was looking forward to your recap.

    I have a hypothesis that perhaps the con was less well-managed because all concert tickets automatically came with a convention ticket this year. If you don’t need to talk people into paying for the con, less incentive to care about how well it’s run?

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  7. My first year at KCON and I gotta say your past reviews have helped me alot! I overall had a great time but thats mainly because I did the following:

    1) Got into the con line early. For the first day, I got in line for convention check in at 8:45 and there was already a line. I think other people realized they needed to come earlier so I came 8:15 for Day 2 and then 7:45 for Day 3 because I wanted to go to KCON Stage.

    2) I didn’t automatically wait in line after the convention for the concert. I’d usually go back to my hotel to refreshen up and get to security at Crypto around 7:15. The only day I came later was Day 3 but that was because of the rain and I still got to see the preshow.

    3) Had a rough outline of everything I wanted to do that day and backups in case the first plan didn’t work out. I joined a Discord for information and found out which vendors were posting about certain freebies ahead of time. For example, I hit up one of the ZB1 booths early to get free stickers.

    Also I’m in my mid 20s but I’ve been a Kpop fan for 14+ years and I felt like KCON was trying to court older fans? Acts like Taemin and Rain, beer garden, etc?

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  8. I am not in USA and never went to see a Kcon, but just wanna make a point. Ateez aparently is signed with Kcon to help promoting smaller groups and local korean brands. Reason why they are always casted for it, at least for now. Usually the day they perform they are the main event and the reason is cause they can sell the tickets and other groups performing the same day usually are smaller groups. Not sure for how long they will keep doing but many people question why they always on it and they already told they are kcon ambassador for now for that purpose.
    Usually they have no trouble in getting concerts out of korea so the amount of shows they do for them is actually a lot and sometimes is tiring, like Jongho got hurt during the show and now he won’t perform in Ateez tour. So is complicated, now they going for the first time in Latam and won’t be with him.

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  10. I’ve been to every KCON LA besides 2012, and this year has to have been the worst ever. The song choices (and number of songs) that were performed at the concert were awful, it felt like we were just at a weekly music show instead of hearing the songs we actually know/were waiting for. Like imagine how bummed people must have been not being able to hear Tricky House by Xikers, Shooting Star by XG, I was devastated that Cravity didn’t do Party Rock, etc. And the fact that only 3 artists total from the 2 concert nights i went to did 3+ songs was astounding. Even Taemin, the legend and headliner for night 1, only got 3 songs and the concert ended over an hour earlier than last year.

    And then the lines. The lines this year were they worst they’ve been since 2014 (which was equally miserable) and it was less organized than normal, which is really saying something. And then when you FINALLY made into the convention center, every booth inside had long ass lines too, it was literally the definition of “Line-con”. There were a few food booths outside and I think some at the KIIS FM thing, but not having the food street was such a misfire.

    If it hadn’t been for the fact that I was able to go to WayV’s meet & greet, and got to see WayV, Taemin & ATEEZ live, I’d have been fully and completely disappointed in this year. The hi touch wasn’t even a hi touch for the second year in a row, they still had the plastic screen that you waved to the idols behind it, which is very much not worth $100+.

    It pains me to say this, as someone who’s gone almost every single year, but if none of my ult groups go next year it may be my first year skipping out on KCON because this year was so awful. Thank god I also didn’t go to day 3 and get caught in the hurricane, I literally can’t imagine.

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  11. This is a bit late, I plan to go to KCON one of these days, so I have to just live vicariously through the videos that are posted. By the way, XG performed on the Showcase Stage where they did a four song set which included Shooting Star and Left Right. I was told that the stage area was just crammed and packed with people wanting to see and hear XG.

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