The Korean Cultural Center in Turkey held the first offline event of 2021, “K-Pop Festival,” as an online/offline hybrid event at the Cultural Center’s outdoor performance hall from 3 pm on June 5th.

 The Cultural Center planned the first K-Pop event in 2021 to satisfy the interest and demand of Hallyu fans. Korean Cultural Center Director Park Kee Houng said that ‘This Festival will be an opportunity to introduce Korean music to the public and become a familiar genre.’

 The contest was held in two categories: dance and vocal. The K-Pop Festival, which received a lot of attention not only from Ankara where the Cultural Center is located, but also from all over Turkey, received online contest applications and went through preliminary rounds, and 6 dance teams and 5 vocal teams participated in the finals. Participants came to Ankara with their passion for K-pop in distant cities such as Izmir, Mersin, and Istanbul.

 In this competition, the participants in the dance division danced as powerfully as the choreography of representative songs of famous Korean K-Pop idol groups, such as Itzy and BlackPink, and showed off their stage dominance like K-Pop singers. The vocalists also excelled in both Korean pronunciation and singing skills due to their passion for K-Pop. In addition, popularity voting was introduced for the first time in this contest, with more than 2,500 people voted in 7 days. The first place in the popular vote was Asya celebi, who received 600 votes and received Missha Cosmetics, as a prize. In addition, Asya celebi in the dance category won first place for a perfect cover of Itzy's mafia song, while Perihan Gul in the vocal category sang Jessie's Star and took first place for her unique vocalization and accurate pronunciation won the Prizes are $700 for 1st place, $500 for 2nd place, and $300 for 3rd place.

  Director Park Kee Houng said, “This K-Pop Festival can be said to be the first online/offline hybrid event to be held at the Cultural Center after the corona pandemic.” “Through this K-Pop Festival, I would like to thank all of us who have had a hard time due to the corona virus. We hope that you will have a great time overcoming it with the exciting rhythm of K-Pop.”