KCON 2013, Day 2

Double albums from my first exposure to the world of K-pop for the final post of The Twelve Posts of Christmas and of 2013!

I was invited by DJ Greg to help out with the cosplay contest that Tune in Tokyo was running at KCON 2013! I’m relatively new to the world of K-pop and had no idea that K-pop cosplay even existed, but I guess the eye-popping costumes and styles of almost any music genre lend themselves perfectly to cosplay. xD

DJ Greg and the Tune in Tokyo crew with KPOP MASQUERADE’s MC Anthony, judge Jason Chong, and judges Jamie and Katt of Nylon Pink.

I was tasked with taking photos of all the entrants at the Tune in Tokyo booth as well as photos of the contest itself. Here is Zico (Woo Jiho) of Block B. She had so much energy during the contest!

Taeyeon of Girls’ Generation. There were so many failed takes of this that I told her I just needed an excuse to take more pictures of her (she was super cute!), but it was really because the camera kept mucking up the exposure. Finally had to switch over to manual mode at this point.

“Trap” (2013 Jun 27 M Countdown performance) version of Henry.

“CRAYON” version of G-Dragon.

After the top five placers were announced, they shared the stage with emcee Anthony, and judges Jason, Katt, and Jamie. The top three got medals — see who they were in my Facebook album linked below!

Many of the contestants took off after the results were announced, but here are the ones who stayed for the group photo!

I was able to check out the rest of the con afterwards. There were a bunch of folks gathered around the gate and there was a van illegally parked right outside, so I stopped to see what was going on. Moments later, Henry came out and headed directly to the Outdoor Stage for an interview!

Time for some dance lessons, one of the many activities available during the convention! I unfortunately didn’t get a program, but all the panels and workshops were held in a few tents on the Arena grounds so it was easy to check things out. There were dance panels, food trucks, vendors, and such high-intensity fan-devotion that it was almost overwhelming!

The only food truck there that didn’t actually sell food! … I think. LOL

The concert that concluded the event was pretty awesome and definitely entertaining as well. Crayon Pop is comprised of five very cute girls! 😀 It must be very difficult to dance around with those helmets on all the time!

Missy Elliott at a K-pop concert, wut? G-Dragon and Missy Elliott performed their new song “Niliria”.

All of the acts (except f(x), who were flying home) retook the stage to say goodnight. Even though most of the acts only did two or three songs each, there were so many of them that the concert ran almost three hours! :O

Goodbye KCON! Maybe I’ll be back next year! So happy that I was given this chance to learn about “hallyu”, to meet some cool new people, and to see some folks I hadn’t seen in a while. Will definitely try to keep abreast of this “Korean Wave”!

Be sure to check out both albums on my Facebook Page, and we’ll see you back here in 2014! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 🙂

2013 08 25 Sun: KCON 2013, Day 2
2013 08 25 Sun: KCON 2013 KPOP MASQUERADE