KCon is returning to Saudi Arabia for a second year. The popular K-pop music festival will be held at Boulevard Riyadh City on October 6 and 7. This year’s event will take place over two days. Day one will feature Everglow, Highlight, Hyolyn, Kard, Riize, Super Junior-D&E (which are members Donghae and Eunhyuk) and 8Turn, while the second day will have Dreamcatcher, El7z Up, Evnne, Oh My Girl, Super Junior, Tempest and TNX take to the stage. In addition to the performances, there will also be fan events such as meet and greets. Last year was the inaugural edition of KCon Saudi Arabia with acts such as Ateez, <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/music-stage/2023/02/24/who-are-k-pop-girl-group-newjeans/" target="_blank">New Jeans</a> and P1Harmony performing to an audience of more than 20,000 people. This comes after a memorandum of understanding was signed in June that year between CJ ENM and the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Culture to host various events to promote South Korean culture in the country. “We will be able to seek various cultural partnerships with this MOU,” CJ ENM said at the time. “This is especially meaningful in that it will allow our content business to expand to countries in the Middle East.” KCon began in California in 2012 and has been held around the world in cities such as New York, Paris, Bangkok and even <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts/k-pop-girl-band-spica-lead-the-way-at-kcon-2016-abu-dhabi-1.164446" target="_blank">Abu Dhabi in 2016</a>, which included a line-up that featured <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/music-stage/2023/06/13/bts-south-korea-kpop-anniversary/" target="_blank">BTS</a>, Taeyeon, and Monsta X. K-pop's growing influence in the Middle East has been evident since 2019 when BTS became the first non-Arab artist to stage a concert at King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh. In addition to KCon Saudi Arabia, it was announced in July that <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/2023/07/08/hyperound-k-fest-2023-enhypen-sunmi-epik-high-and-others-to-perform-in-abu-dhabi/" target="_blank">Hyperound K-Fest 2023 </a>would also be marking a return to Abu Dhabi with Enhypen, Sunmi – who performed during <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/expo-2020-dubai/">Expo 2020 Dubai</a> – Epik High, DPR Ian, XG, Cherry Bullet and Peakboy.