With the rise of K-pop and pretty much everything coming from South Korea, it’s no wonder that people want to have a little taste of the party life as well. That’s where Kevents steps in, a company organising parties for K-pop and K-hip hop fans all around the world.
The founder usually prefers to stay in the background, but M.E.A.L. was lucky enough to snag an interview with him. Ping started the company in July 2017. He wants to help bring communities together, to have people enjoy themselves with good music. “It’s all about promoting culture, food and dance. That’s what’s important.“
In the two years that Kevents has been around, Ping has already organized events in twenty European countries. “We also had an event in Mexico, for the first time. And later this month, we are having our first parties in Los Angeles and San Francisco. We’re very excited to see how that goes.”
Since there has been a huge growth in attention to K-pop, the communities looking for K-pop related events are growing fast. “It’s been growing steadily since 2012. Psy really opened a lot of doors. A lot of people saw it as a novelty, as something new, but I definitely think it helped break boundaries. Now, there’s BTS who have done unimaginable things, but we can’t forget all the artists who came before them.”
Touring and Insomnia
As any organization, companies grow and evolve from how they might have started. Even though they still have the parties, they also started touring with artists. Ping, who also works as a DJ and promoter, joined Bang Yongguk, a South Korean rapper and former leader of the popular group B.A.P. while touring in the EU. He also joined Owen and Bloo. “That three day tour was a tough one. We hardly slept. Owen and Bloo were performing in the evenings or at night and then during the day, we had to travel from one place to the next. So the only shut-eye we could get was on the plane or on the bus.”
Ping doesn’t mind the touring though, “Because you’re together for such a long time, you get to know people really fast. You joke around, you chat a lot. You become close friends easily. They’re all really lovely people as well, even though we didn’t sleep for thirty hours, and it may have been a bit too intense, we still had a lot of fun.”
Bringing over artists for events or tours is not the easiest thing in the world. “For some acts you start talking a year in advance, because there’s quite some work involved. There are also a lot of costs and risks. It’s really about getting your name out there, making good connections and positive feedback.”
The Dream
He has no intentions of slowing down. The dream for Kevents is to eventually host festivals and build bigger communities around the world. “I think I just want everyone to enjoy themselves. Also when you see people having a good time, I get a really nice feeling. It’s like I’ve achieved something great.”
The K-hip hop community in Dublin has some catching up to do. “The parties here are usually around 200 people. I think London has one of the biggest scenes in Europe. There’s a room specifically for K-hip hop, and the club holds about 1500 to 2000 people.”
Though Dublin shouldn’t despair because according to Ping: “The energy is always great. Maybe it is because there aren’t that many K-pop events yet, but the crowd is amazing. I think they have this sense of when something happens, we’re going to make it a night we’ll never forget.”
If you’d like to take a look at Kevents’ social media,
https://www.instagram.com/officialkevents/
https://www.facebook.com/officialkevents/
https://twitter.com/officialkevents
https://www.officialkevents.com/
