From the Creators of New York Comic Con, PAX, and Anime NYC, KPEX: Korean Pop Culture EXPO is Coming to New York, May 2027.
LeftField Media, a consumer and enthusiast division of Clarion Events, today announced the creation of KPEX: Korean Pop Culture Expo. This new event will be a three-day celebration of Korean entertainment and culture in America’s biggest city filled with special guests and events for fans of K-Pop, K-Dramas, K-Comics, K-Games, K-Food, and K-Beauty. Led by event industry veterans Greg Topalian (co-creator of New York Comic Con), Robert Khoo (co-creator of PAX), and Peter Tatara (co-creator of Anime NYC), and built by LeftField Media (the makers of Anime NYC, Anime Frontier, Awesome Con, and Rose City Comic Con), the KPEX team has made some of the biggest and most beloved popular culture live events in the US, and they now turn their experience on the exciting, burgeoning world of K-Content and K-Culture.
Spread across Memorial Day Weekend 2027, KPEX will provide fans an opportunity to meet their favorite Korean stars and see, hear, taste, and touch what’s next in Korean entertainment. Each day will be packed with panel discussions, premiere screenings, interactive workshops, autograph sessions, and a dynamic expo floor filled with shopping and unique experiences, and each night will be anchored by a showstopping concert spotlighting artists coming from Seoul to New York City. KPEX will present fans with over 100 hours of special events created by both leading companies in the K-Content world as well as their fellow fans all around NYC. KPEX is by fans, for fans, and the voices of the fandom will be felt all throughout the convention, delivering an unforgettable weekend for all lovers of K-Content and K-Culture.
KPEX is further proud to share that it will launch with partners, sponsors, and participants including the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA), a governmental agency focusing on expanding K-Content worldwide, and Ize Press, the US publisher of fan-favorite Korean comics and novels including Solo Leveling and Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, with many, many more participants to be announced across the coming months.
Fans can look forward to tickets to the convention launching on September 18 at 12 Noon Eastern Time. KPEX will announce special guests and show features throughout the fall.
“From Oscar wins and K-Pop stars performing during the World Cup, to record-breaking streaming success, Korean entertainment has become a beloved fixture in American pop culture with over 25 million fans all across the country,” said Peter Tatara, Co-Founder of KPEX. “We hope we can now give its fans, creators, and the companies at the heart of K-Culture a place to call home in the center of New York City.”
Looking across the country, comic cons and anime cons connect fans with American and Japanese pop culture in almost every city, but very few gathering places exist for fans of Korean pop culture. KPEX will change this and build a revolutionary comic con for the Hallyu Generation, bringing lovers of K-Pop, K-Dramas, K-Comics, K-Games, K-Food, K-Beauty, and more all together under one roof in New York’s Javits Center.
“KPEX hopes to create a space for fans to deepen their relationship with Korean culture, lifestyle, entertainment, and artists,” said Robert Khoo, Co-Founder of KPEX. “We want to uplift the community by giving it a home in NYC, build a destination which elevates the fandom all across the United States, and our long-term goal is to expand this cultural excitement into lasting international awareness and goodwill that more closely connects the US and Korea.”
In addition to connecting fans with the Korean pop culture industry, KPEX will also connect industry professionals with one another through a B2B experience side-by-side with fan interactions. KPEX looks to build a path for companies and creators to debut projects and products and offer new media exposure and meaningful business connections.
KPEX is announced by LeftField Media just one week after the 2026 installment of its Anime NYC Japanese pop culture convention. Its largest year yet, Anime NYC played host to 172,000 fans from around the USA, world premieres, and appearances by some of the biggest stars and companies in Japanese pop culture, all brought together in the Javits Center - the same venue as next year’s KPEX.
“KPEX looks to follow the same success as Anime NYC, which LeftField founded nine years ago, and we’re working with many of the same partners and team who brought Anime NYC to life,” said Kelly Comboni, CEO of LeftField Media and Clarion Connect. “We further want to make certain that KPEX is built authentically for fans of K-Culture. The KPEX team is made of K-Content fans, and we’re working with organizations and individuals across the Korean and Korean American worlds to craft the event in a genuine way, including partnering with Infinitize and IW Group, both award-winning agencies with tremendous experience in Korean culture, entertainment, and fandom, to help build the best, most fan-focused festival we can create.”
Fans wishing to hear more can visit kpexevents.com, join its newsletter, and follow the event on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok to be the first to learn about special guests, show features, and ways to get involved.
