After over a year of zero live music, artists are finally announcing new concerts and rescheduled tour dates. However, online concerts aren’t completely over (thank god) and Joy Ruckus Club has announced that this Saturday, they will be hosting a virtual show that is set to be the first of its kind. K-pop SuperFest will be the largest K-pop concert targeting the genre’s ever-growing global audience to date—14 acts are slated to perform, including AleXa, Woo!Ah!, GWSN, Lovelyz, Golden Child, Cravity, Momoland, AB6IX, The Boyz, Ailee, Bloo, Jessi, Rain, and DJ Soda. AleXa and The Boyz’s Kevin Moon will be performing double duty, serving as hosts for the event as well.
Some of the biggest acts in K-pop today have taken advantage of virtual concerts since the pandemic began, but there has yet to be a concert featuring this many popular groups from this many different companies sharing one stage. And for the Joy Ruckus Club, SuperFest is as much about celebrating pan-Asian culture as it is about the music. In its mission statement, Joy Ruckus Club describes itself as “a humanitarian-oriented, virtual concert series, founded by Asian Americans, and led by artists of Asian descent from all over the world, Joy Ruckus Club is a revolution in pan-Asian music. Not silent, not complacent, not foreign, Joy Ruckus Club is a society of woke Asians who are in solidarity with all truthfully progressive movements of the oppressed and conquered.”
Ahead of the show, performer/host AleXa told The A.V. Club just how important an event like this is to her and to her fellow K-pop idols. “The past year has been difficult for everyone, including idols,” she said. “Performing isn’t something that we were able to do that frequently, so it truly is an honor to be in the lineup for SuperFest.”
A long time K-pop fan herself (even before her 2017 and 2018 appearances on popular reality competition shows Rising Star and Produce 48), AleXa is astonished by the global spread of K-pop within the last few years. “I think the fact that K-pop has become so globally accessible and known internationally is incredible,” she says. “I hardly knew anyone else who liked K-pop growing up, and now, especially if you look at hot social media platforms, K-pop is everywhere! Its growth and expansion is truly amazing.”
Forever a fan at heart, AleXa also revealed which of her co-performers she was most excited to watch this weekend. “I’m very excited to see Jessi perform! She is my QUEEN and being able to perform on the same stage as her is a dream come true,” she said.
SuperFest begins streaming at 9 p.m. ET on Saturday, June 19; tickets start at $20.
