We kpop-ped our way to our first very pop-up shop during the August Bank Holiday weekend, whilst September was brought in by the highly anticipated Hallyu Con 2021! We were thrilled to be official sponsors of Hallyu Con 2021 and provide the prizes to the awesome winners!
Read on to find out how our pop-shop event went on and our plans are for the wintery months ahead. Keep reading for an update from the Hallyu Con team....
28th & 29th Aug 2021
Planning
Our first pop-up shop was three months in the planning. It was our very first in-store event and we wanted to make it a memorable experience for everyone who visited us on those two days.
We knew we wanted to launch our inaugural shop in London as it was our name-sake after all! We scoured the streets of Central London to find the perfect location with Atelier Tammam. It was love at first sight with this uniquely quaint bespoke tailor which was a stone's throw away from King's Cross station.
We knew almost immediately that this shop would also be perfect to host merch from the Friends of LKS, i.e. SewWhat and SopeWorldPins and we were so thrilled when they agreed to send us their wonderful handmade hoops, unique BTS pins, notebooks, air fresheners and more!
Covid safety measures were still in place during our planning and so we wanted to make sure every person visiting us would feel safe whilst browsing for K-pop merch. As such, we created booking slots for both days thinking that if we filled at least 50% then we'd have done well for our first event.........the actual days themselves turned out to be quite different.......
The planning was proceeding well, and without any hiccups, there was only increasing excitement on our part as we got closer to the Bank Holiday weekend. We had prepared lots of exclusive pop-up promotions so that there would be something for everyone, including an Early Bird discount for the first 25 bookings (those got taken up fairly quickly!).
Our favourite promotion has to be the one given exclusively to LKS pop-up customers by Little Korea restaurant in London. It is a gem of a Korean restaurant nestled in the heart of Chinatown. It serves the most delicious food (the delicious fried chicken is halal btw!) and its owner is a lovely lady who will make you feel right at home the moment you arrive. You may even be able to enjoy performing some K-pop Karaoke while there!
We were delighted to be asked to be a venue for the wonderful Infinity 4 Mind project organised by @BTSRM_UK who were selling stunning pins and coins where all proceeds went to Mind Charity.
The Main Event
The eve of the pop-up shop event saw all our slots fully booked and us ready to bring all the stock we had in our online store, the merch from Sew What and SopeWorldPins, and more!
We busily readied the store in the early hours of Saturday morning in anticipation of our first customers. Words cannot describe the feeling we had when we met customers face-to-face whom we had only previously interacted with online, and the new customers whom we would be equally delighted to serve.
We had queues outside with people waiting patiently, despite having travelled from near and far; Wales, Stockton-on-Tees, Scotland!
All our customers gave us such an outpouring of support and love as they browsed, chatted, laughed and joked with us whilst in our little store. Our joy came from seeing customers find what they were looking for, and some unplanned purchases, arms packed with K-pop merch.
We are deeply grateful to everyone who suffered technical issues from our side on both days and still left with a smile on their face and words of encouragement which we appreciate and will always remember.
At the end of the two days, we were thoroughly exhausted but brimming with the positive energy received from everyone. So much so, that we started planning our next pop-up on the drive home! :-)
Post Event
RAFFLE - We contacted the randomly selected two raffle winners who were happy to be receiving the BTS, BT21 and K-Beauty goodies below!
TIKTOK TAGS - there were some fab pop-up shop haul TikTok videos - check them out by searching @londonkpopst on TikTok.
We would like to thank our collaborators Sew What, SopeWorldPins and Little Korea for helping us make the event extra special with their merch and promotions, and also with their generosity and kindness!
We would also like to give Atelier Tammam a special mention for allowing us to host our pop-up at their beautiful premises.
FUTURE PLANS
We are getting ready for the next pop-up shop in December with a festive theme - save the date Sat 11th Dec 2021
We will also be at the RadioKimchiUK fair in London on Sun 19th Dec - details coming soon on our social media accounts.
Having a pop-up in the Midlands is something on the cards for 2022 so that we can be more accessible to our customers outside of London.
LKS' 1st Birthday - as we approach 12 months since opening our online store, we have some fun birthday treats coming soon!
Follow us on our socials to keep updated on events and offers
Instagram: @londonkpopstreet
Twitter: @londonkpopst
TikTok: @londonkpopstreet
Facebook: London Kpop Street
HALLYU CON 2021 HIGHLIGHTS
We hope that you were all able to enjoy the last days of Summer.
The Hallyu Con team is still very much basking on the aftermath of our event following the livestream on Saturday, 4th September – thank you to those of you who tuned in on that day.
In case you missed the stream or wish to rewatch it, you can do so by clicking here on our YouTube channel. You can now watch each segment separately including some extra cuts! We promise it will be worth your time!
In our previous post, we invited you to take part in the various challenges and giveaways that were taking place leading up to the livestream date, so we would like to take this opportunity to thank those who took part or helped us spread the word.
The winners have now been announced for the themed challenges (K-Pop Dance and Korean Street Fashion) and for the K-Drama giveaway. If you took part in either of these challenges, head over to our website to find out whether you won one of our amazing prizes (sponsored by your very own London Kpop Street!).
Through this year’s event, we were able to reach out to many Hallyu fans across the world, and so we would like to thank everyone who participated in our challenges, engaged with us in our various social media channels, or submitted content for our livestream.
We have some new and exciting news to share in due course and more giveaway events in the near future so, if you haven't done so already, follow us on all our socials so you don’t miss out!
We hope that you continue to share your passion for everything Hallyu and continue to engage with us in our future endeavours to promote it!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hallyu_con/
Hallyu Con YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/HallyuConOfficial
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hallyu_con
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hallyucon