HallyuPopFest London 2022 — The UK’s first K-Pop festival hits Wembley
In the midst of a glorious heatwave, an even bigger Hallyu Wave crashed over London this weekend, bringing a storm of incredible talent from South Korea for HallyuPopFest 2022 - the first ever k-pop festival to hit the UK.
With dazzling performances from a diverse host of artistes — including EXO’s KAI and Chen, Weeekly, HwaSa, SF9, Paul Kim and Kep1er — not to mention a VIP red carpet, artist Meet & Greet, and HallyuTown, k-pop fans really got their k-culture fix for two amazing days at OVO Wembley Arena, London.
ONEUS performing Black Mirror (image credit: Hallyu Doing)
Anticipation
Hours before the festival was due to kick off, Wembley was buzzing with k-pop fans, ready to celebrate their love of Hallyu. Queues for the Meet & Greet ballot snaked through the park, squeals of excitement bursting from the tent as VIPs discovered which stars they would be meeting later that day.
Fans queueing for the hi wave ballot @ HallyuTown (image credit: Hallyu Doing)
A weekend of fun with fans
HallyuPopFest offered plenty of opportunities for stars to interact with fans, from HallyuTown stages where Weeekly and CIX challenged the crowd to win signed albums, to the VIP red carpet where all artists showed off their stage outfits, shared anecdotes from their London trip and teased their performances, as well as fun mini games during the Showcase and Concert.
Weeekly at HallyuTown 💖 #HallyuPopFest#Weeekly #위클리 @_Weeekly pic.twitter.com/GYio1KU9PL
— 테디e (@todaileee) July 9, 2022
SF9 at the HallyuPop Festival in London : RED CARPET as they deserve!
— 🌌7th_soulchild (@7th_soulchild) July 10, 2022
Yoo Taeyang sexy back❤❤❤#SF9#HallyuPopFest #HPFlondon2022 #HallyuPopFest2022 pic.twitter.com/uVExPitI70
A taste of Korea
HallyuTown, hosted by MBC and brought to Wembley Park by HallyuPopFest, was free for all to enter, showcasing a range of k-beauty, fitness and even some food for the public to try. A great way to introduce more k-culture to the UK, fans could taste teokbokki, win skincare products, or try the lastest Korean exercise trends.
image credit: Hallyu Doing
Incredible performances
The concert portion of the festival was kicked off on Saturday by a showcase from Sam Kim, his honey-like R&B vocals pouring from the stage as he performed crowd favourites Love Me Like That and Make Up, alongside co-producer Simon on keyboard. P1Harmony followed, hitting us with super energetic choreo for BOP and That’s It, before attempting a random play dance - if they failed, they had to wear silly accessories for the rest of the stage. Keeho completed the challenge flawlessly, but was a little disappointed - he wanted to try a forfeit.
Keeho having his bohemian Rhapsody moment #P1HarmonyinLondon #P1Harmony_HallyuPopFest pic.twitter.com/RHgE5Lw5KQ
— ZERO IN: Jojo (@P1Hloversclub) July 10, 2022
Sam Kim performing with Simon (image credit: Hallyu Doing)
Saturday also saw performances from ONEUS, EVERGLOW, HwaSa, ASTRO and headliner EXO's Chen. As teased during the VIP Red Carpet, ONEUS surprised us with explosive dance breaks from their US tour during Black Mirror and No Diggity. Not a single person held back singing along to EVERGLOW as they lit up the stage with DUN DUN and LA DI DA. HwaSa dazzled with her badass persona for I'm a 빛 and Maria, but sweetly sang happy birthday to a lucky member of the crowd during a fun O/X Quiz segment. ASTRO showed us their sexy/cute duality with unit and group performances including Bad Idea and Candy Sugar Pop, before ballad King Chen ended the night with his angelic and sentimental vocals in Everytime, gifting his first performance post-enlistment to the HallyPopFest crowd, a glittering sea of flashlights and lightsticks.
but can we talk about how loud everyone was for everglow?!? i hope they tour here after receiving so much energy #HallyuPopFest #EVERGLOW #HallyuPopFest2022 pic.twitter.com/EBOS2Io2LP
— kim⁷ (@_220113) July 10, 2022
His voice 😮 #CHEN #HallyuPopFest pic.twitter.com/uTtPChjUom
— Lina | I saw Astro 💜 (@IntlAroha) July 9, 2022
Another day, another fantastic show
Sunday's concert opened with a vibrant stage from Weeekly, wowing the crowd with their lively performance of After School (featuring longboard choreo), as well as dance covers of Blackpink's How You Like That and ATEEZ's Wonderland. Charismatic OST legend Paul Kim got the crowd chanting from the second he stepped on-stage, and even flirted with the audience using British slang: “I feel so chuffed. And you know what? You are all peng.” (You won’t believe where he learnt that…)
weeekly covering ateez at hallyupopfest! (I might’ve burst several eardrums) pic.twitter.com/iMZQxj20jl
— Hallyu Doing (@HallyuDoing) July 10, 2022
when you teach paul kim the british slang chuffed, peng and bees knees… then this happens on stage pic.twitter.com/0Hs0FN3EXj
— Hallyu Doing (@HallyuDoing) July 11, 2022
CRAVITY brought boundless energy to the room with performances of VENI VIDI VICI and Jumper, and CIX blew us away with their versitility, with songs like Jungle and Cinema amongst their set. Kep1er performed abroad for the first time ever, starting with their debut track WA DA DA and ending with their newest title, Up!. Dealing very well with a technical hiccup, SF9 hit us with Good Guy, Tear Drop and Play Hard. Dance King Kai closed the show with Mmmh, a very flirtacious end to the festival.
Keplians’ song 😍 @official_kep1er #KEP1ERinLondon #hallyupopfest pic.twitter.com/SgDpQzC188
— steps⁷ in the box (@hobbysteps) July 11, 2022
Peaches live just has me speechless 😶 #hallyupopfest #HallyuPopFest2022 #KAI #KimJongin pic.twitter.com/k450MA9uPv
— Ummi ♡ kimmy the loml (@ummi2412) July 11, 2022
What’s next for HallyuPopFest?
With festivals in Singapore and the UK under their belt - and HallyuPopFest Sydney coming this August - where will HallyuPopFest go next? Will we see it back in London for 2023, or will they take their celebration of k-culture and music somewhere new? Let us know in the comments where you'd like to see HallyuPopFest next, and share your dream line-up with us below!
