Their passion for K-pop spans equally across Africa and Europe. Fans on both continents reveal their love and passion for their favorite K-pop stars, holding up their own handmade messages and placards. The top photo shows fans attending the K-culture in Kenya concert, and the bottom photo shows K-pop fans from across Europe who descended on Paris for the KCON France 2016 festival.
Cheers and passion.
These are the two representative acts and emotions that were on display at all of the recent concerts that took place in Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and France when President Park Geun-hye paid her state visits to the countries.
In the concerts in the three East African capitals, the audiences were able to enjoy the uniqueness of Korean and African traditions through music. The taekwondo martial arts demonstrations also wowed them.
Taekwondo demonstrations grab the audiences’ attention in the concerts that take place in Addis Ababa, Kampala and Nairobi. At each venue, the audience packed the hall to give a big round of applause for the child athletes who showed off their taekwondo moves. The photos above show children from Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya giving a taekwondo performance.
The well-trained taekwondo athletes displayed their poomsae moves and high-level maneuvers, surprising the audiences. After the performances, audience members approached the stages to take photos with the young practitioners. Children from each country also earned a big round of applause when they appeared on stage at the beginning of the event.
As the KCON France 2016 festival opened in Paris, the first time for KCON to come to Europe, the love for K-pop and for Korean pop culture more broadly was on display, not only from France but also from all across Europe. After waiting for days on end, and in the rain, too, fans entered the convention center early in the afternoon on the day of the concert. They had fun sampling some Korean food, such as kimchi, red ginseng and desserts made from Korean food, and trying some Korean cosmetics.
The concert featured the pop sensations Bangtan Boys, Block B and F. T. Island, proving their cross-continental popularity and igniting a passion for K-pop across Europe. The venue was packed by fans who gathered for the event from across Europe, coming from as far away as Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Germany and Austria, and they began to arrive two days before the event even began. They filled the 12,000-strong concert hall with shouts and sang together in unison with their stars on stage.
Finally, as the concert wrapped up, many of the European K-pop fans at the festival expressed their hopes that more K-pop concerts could be held in Europe, even if their favorite pop groups weren’t able to come. They couldn’t quench their thirst for K-pop.
By Jeon Han, Yoon Sojung
Korea.net Staff Writers
Photos: Jeon Han
hanjeon@korea.kr
President Park Geun-hye speaks to the audience after the K-culture in Nairobi concert on May 31 in the Kenyan capital. She emphasized the importance of cross-cultural exchanges that help people to better understand each other and to communicate from the heart.
Pop sensations like the Bangtan Boys, Block B and F. T. Island sing along to the traditional folk song ‘Arirang’ during KCON France 2016, at the Accor Hotels Arena in Paris on June 2. All 12,000 tickets were sold out for the first-ever KCON festival in Europe.
European K-pop fans show their love for the genre as they wait for two days in the rain for the KCON France 2016 festival to begin. Despite medium- to heavy-rain, they stayed awake all night, with some even setting up tents, waiting for the long-awaited concert to begin.
Concerts in Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya offer an opportunity to see first-hand and to learn more about Korea and traditional arts from each of the three African societies. The above photos show the K-culture concerts that took place in Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya.
