Hey guys! If you live in California, you should definitely consider attending the KPOPCON held at Berkeley every year! A lot of you were hesitant about doing so and wanted to know the exact details, so I decided to make a post about my experience at Kpopcon '13!

Kpopcon is a two day event, and it started on the morning of Saturday at Berkeley. Free breakfast was provided, and the first half hour or so was spent nibbling on snacks and getting to meet and know other kpop fans better. The convention officially began at around 9 AM with a keynote, in which Amy Lee Lucas (Choreographer of KPOP bands such as 2NE1, Big Bang, and etc) and Cass Song (Dancer) talked about their experiences and answered questions and such. They also gave out a wicked cool T-shirt. 

After the keynote, a free lunch was served consisting of a Chinese food platter. And after that you could attend the various workshops they had available. There were a bunch to choose from, by my friends and I decided to attend a dance session to learn SHINee's Sherlock and a workshop run by Hanuel Lee, a former YG ent trainee who talked about her experience. Somewhere in between that, my friends and I went to downtown Berkeley which is literally like a 5 minute walk away, and went to pretty much one of the best ice cream shops around, Creams! They have these delicious ice cream sandwiches in which the sandwich part is two large fresh baked cookies (flavor of your choice) with a large scoop of ice cream in between (flavor of your choice.) You can also shop around downtown Berkeley too as well as grab a bite to eat if you're still hungry - it's also very easy to navigate so you can find your way back to the school easily.

The showcase begins during the late afternoon, and this was definitely the high light of the entire convention! The performers were like legit KPOP stars, it wasn't even funny! There was one group from UC Davis, that did like three snazzy outfit changes really professionally and had a wicked performance - they also have cute boys, ay. Another group, Dachirim, consists of 4 gorgeous girls who's dancing skills have even been acknowledged by SISTAR - they attend every year, and one of the members actually go to my school. There are also ten or so more outstanding performances to keep your entertainment up and running! Halfway through the showcase there was an interlude in which a representative of VIKI held a drama trivia and gave out tons of free stuff - including posters, t-shirts, ear phones, etc.

After the showcase is over, the convention still goes on for a about a half more hour because you can take pictures with all the performers - something you definitely don't want to miss. Because there are tons of places to eat around Berkeley, once all the events of Saturday are over you can hit downtown Berkeley to grab a bite to eat.

Sunday was a day I had been looking forward to, because I was actually one of the booths that had come to sell KPOP merchandise (SOMETHING OF WHICH ILL BE DOING AGAIN THIS YEAR, WINK WINK.) There are a lot of booths represented during the Sunday meetup, such as Yesstyle, VIKI, Soompi, other merchants like me, and a lot of different fan clubs - the ones I can remember are the official SHINee, B1A4, and TVXQ fan clubs, but I'm pretty sure there were more. There's quite a selection of merchandise you can get to bring home - if you do go, you should check out my booth first, hint hint - and a scavenger hunt was held after a few hours. I couldn't participate in that because I was in charge of my booth, but it seriously looked like a lot of fun - winners got a prize! After that, a talent show is held in which people who were a bit too shy to perform at the showcase could perform now. There were a lot of hidden talents, and you would get a free gift courtesy of VIKI just for performing! 

Tickets are only $20 - which honestly is really cheap considering all the things you get. The showcase enough was worth the money alone! If you live relatively far - because nobody wants to drive 2 or more hours to and fro, the convention offers FREE overnight housing as long as you let them know when you buy your ticket. 

If those weren't good enough reasons to go already - here's the best one. YOU CAN MEET ME, BANZAI BANZAI! Because I am fantastic and a wonderful person to meet. <3

If you have any questions, feel free to ask! You can also find out more info by going to their Facebook page or website!