HallyuPopFest London ' 22

I am a KPOP fanatic, here I say it! I love Kpop and Jpop for years and no not since BTS altho I have nothing against them and if you are a Kpop fan you know very well this world is more than just them ! but way before their time and when I was a teen and my love for Korean and Japanese cultures came with watching anime and not long after with anything music-related. Last weekend I attended my first even Kpop concert and let's say it was incredibly fun and a dream come true to see my favorite bias performing too. That artist is Kai or God Kai or Kim Jong-in whatever you like to call him from the SuperM and Exo groups. But before I talk all bout it, what not mention what is HallyopopFest Shall we? it's a worldwide festival that travels the world to showcase many Kpop artists from big to newbies to all the fans out there. Not only its usually two days of pure fun it also showcases on sites Korean food, beauty, and lifestyle for all ticket holders. As I am a huge fan of everything Korean from music to beauty to even dramas, of course, I was in my total element.

The festival happens from the weekend of the 9th til the 10th of July. Unfortunately, I couldn't go on both days but I decided to get the VIP ticket for Sunday instead, as I was missing one day I decided to have it all out for at least one day could go. So what my VIP ticket has in offer for me and my fellow Kpop fellows. 
VIP Ticket holder: Goodie bag from the Korean market. in my goodie bag, I could find some full-size Korean skincare products, Korean Kpop stickers, my lanyard for my VIP pass and also my pass for a meet and greet for one of the groups of my choice, HallyuTown access, the red carpet access pass and of course, the best sit on the house few feet away from the stage.
On Sunday the lineup was as follows:SF9kep1erCIXCravityWeeeklyPaul KimKai

HallyuTown 
The area was located about 5 - 7 minutes' walk from the OVO Arena. HallyuTown showcases Korean products and sells merchandise. The area was also where all VIP ticket holders were to collect their Meet and Greet lanyard and their goodie bag. Unfortunately, due to an issue with transport that was unexpected, (it took me over 3 hours to travel to OVO Arena when technically it shall have taken me 45 minutes) I did not get the time to properly enjoy this area which really upset me as I am a hardcore fan of Korean goodies especially anything beauty related and food. I only had the time to pick up my lanyard and have a quick overview of the area before it was already time to queue for the red carpet event. So Unfortunately I can not tell you much about it or give you an overview of all the Korean products present that day :(

Red Carpet: 
The event started at about 2pm with the famous red carpet where of each group/artist with an interview of approximately 10-15 minutes for each artist. The first artist to walk the red carpet was Paul Kim 

(폴킴)

. Paul Kim is known for his honey voice and is a very romantic artist who is not to my taste but neither the less very talented and definitely deserves all the love also he speaks excellent English so check him out. Here is one of his singles with over 56M views on YouTube.

 Next on the line was the girl group Weeekly (위클리), 6 members launched in 2020 all adorable and all very cute. Known for their bubbly girly theme songs, if they are your style do check them out, one of their most successful to date is After School with over 136M views on YouTube !!.

Followed by Cravity!  K-pop boy group that absolutely love, check out one of their hit: 'Adrenaline' that reached over 11M views on YouTube.that I can't stop listening pretty much every day. The group has 9 members and was launched in April 2020 oh !did I mention they become the first rookie newbie to each of the 100 billboard Kpop hot 100? That s right! and they already pocketed many awards.

Next on the line was CIX (씨아이엑스 ) which is also a boy Kpop group with 5 members launched in 2019, that I rather enjoy following one of my favorite songs from this group is :  ' Wave'  with 30M hit on YouTube. Do check them out! 

Who was on the next line up well simply Kep1er  (케플러)  formed by 9 members and launched in 2021, just like Weeekly their style is very girly and bubbly one of their hits is Wa Da Da with over 127M views on YouTube. 

Last of the supporting group/ artist is the K-pop boy band group SF9 (에스에프나인; shortened from Sensational Feeling 9) consisting of 9 members altho only 6 were present this day (some are other members have overlap engagement or in Military enlistment) which I have a special meet and greet lanyard for it. I absolutely adored this group and one of my favorite so far songs from them is: Tear Drop and Good Guy with over 44M views on YouTube. They were launched in October 2016 .

KAI :

So here is a quick representation of all the artists, but hang on are you not missing one Marie? Of course! and our last artist is Kai who is the headliner act of this Sunday 10th of July event. No need to introduce Kai anymore from the world-famous Exo group and SuperM kai is known for being one of the best dancers in the Kpop industry and its 1st mini album Mmmh is the fastest-selling 1st album in Kpop history. His first solo single Mmmmh (which is one of my favorites) has over 121 Million views on YouTube which is unseen for a first solo Kpop album. Check it out here. His nickname: God Kai and as a massive fan, this clearly suits him so well from his impeccable fashion sense, his kindness, the amazing dance move that got him to be known to be the best dancer in the industry, and of course his music makes him one of the most successful artists in the industry. 
I am not going to lie but for me coming to Hallyupopfest London 2022 was of course to meet SF9, Cravity, etc which I really love but Kai was really why I was here. The man did not disappoint us with his humble self, his shy smile, and his stage presence. After its red carpet walk, he went on the red carpet stage where he was interviewed, I have to admit I remember little of the interview let's say I was under his spell also did I mention that it was the first time seeing him so of course I was very emotional and could not believe he was there. I always wanted to see him or at least once in my life and let's say it was a dream come true. After his interview, he left backstage and I was all emotional and already I could not wait to see him again that day for the evening concert.

Meet and Greet 

After the Red Carpet event for VIP ticket holders only, the next step was the Meet and Greet. Unfortunately, we could only choose one group to meet ( Kai was not participating in the meet and greet event unfortunately) so I went with SF9 and here is when I got to see them below: 

We waited about 1 hour before the people that choose to see them could actually meet them, my only disappointment is I wish we had a longer time to say hello as we have rushed perhaps something that the organizer shall take into consideration in the next events? But overall it was nice to be able to meet them even if it was short but definitely sweet to be very close to the artists.

Showcase and Evening Concert:

After the Meet and Greet event, we were kindly asked to get to our designated area, mine was the VIP side front stage sit. I do regret not having taken the standing front row (it was the same price) but because of my anxiety, I was worried the crowd would be too much for me turned out this area was not busy as I thought but of course, in this kind of event you never know how it will end. Despite this slight disappointment my sit was perfectly fine and rather clothe on the stage, even so, my picture taken doesn't really translate that it looks like I am further away. It was a great sitting surrounded by lovely ladies and a few gents.

The Stage event was divided into 2, the 1st act was what Happyupopfest called the: Showcase followed by the main evening concert. The purpose of the Showcase was mostly to introduce to the British public two artists or in this case one artist and one female group which were Paul Kim and Weeekly. Both acts sang some of their best hits and interacted with games with the public which was rather very fun and it feel like we were closer to both acts. 

Evening Concert:

For the main event, we got to see again:  Paul Kim and Weeekly (which sounds a bit repetitive as they sang again same songs during the showcase but I still enjoy seeing them a second time).  even so, they were featured in the showcase, followed by SF9, Cravity, Kep1er, CIX, and the last stage: Kai.

All Kpop groups show a variety of moves unique to their styles and I didn't get bored at all, from their stage presence, their interaction with us to their fantastic outfits, their music, and well the whole thing as a whole went above my expectation. I was well impressed by all those fantastic artists and I certainly would love to see similar Kpop shows in the near future which I am sure I will. 

Also, the stage itself was rather impressive and each artist as a different video style background along with light effects, smoke, firework, and even fireballs which we could feel the heat every time it went on. Once again the set design was unique to each artist so whoever designed the stage got two big fat thumbs from me.

Kai stage

In the end, we got to finally see the last act: kai which few minutes before his grand entrance the whole public, including myself, was shooting Kim Jongin as we just could not wait to see God Kai enter the stage. He arrived and as expected the whole concert hall went absolutely insane, something I rarely heard or seen. 

It was vibration everywhere from our hearts to our feet to our eyes. Kai was here and he was to put on a hell of a show for us starting with one of his hits from his second mini album Peaches which obviously the whole public went bonkers while singing to his beautiful mellow voice followed by his hypnotic Reason single. Despite a trouser accident, which made us all laugh ( well just imagine where it was located) but thankfully for Kai, he was wearing black underwear so it was all good. he came back about 10 minutes later with new trousers apologizing for the delay along with a shy cheeky smile that only Kai know how to.

His pell presence carry on with Mmmh which was absolutely amazing and Hello Stranger. The man was hypnotic and his presence magical but unfortunately the end was near.

Each artist came back on stage for a final goodbye as a whole. Kai arrived last and once again got the scream and excitement that he deserved.

Despite a few hiccups, the Hallyopopfest London edition delivered and I will certainly be back. 

And here you have it my first Kpop Concert, were you there or hoping to get to the next year's edition? Tell me all by commenting below. 

Oh and stay tuned for my next blog post all about the hotel I stayed at during that weekend and my London adventure with Kai in the background. :) 

Marie