HYBE's 2026 Weverse Con Is Now a 20-Act K-Pop Showdown

HYBE has unveiled the second wave of performers for the 2026 Weverse Con Festival, bringing the event's confirmed artist count to 20 and creating one of the most generationally diverse festival lineups in the event's four-year history. The new additions span from second-generation icon Kim Jae Joong — a member of legendary K-pop act TVXQ — to fifth-generation newcomers like TWS and BOYNEXTDOOR, building a bill that is, in effect, a living timeline of Korean pop music.

HYBE announced the second lineup on March 25 through the Weverse platform and the festival's official website. The 10 newly confirmed acts — KWON JIN AH, KIM JAE JOONG, LUCY, BOYNEXTDOOR, AMPERS&ONE, Apink, YOON SAN-HA, TWS, 82MAJOR, and HWANG MIN HYUN — join the first wave revealed earlier: AHOF, CORTIS, ILLIT, LEECHANGSUB, P1Harmony, PLAVE, QWER, TOUCHED, WENDY, and &TEAM. A third and final lineup announcement, including details about a special Tribute Stage honoring K-pop legends, is still expected in April.

Event Details: Seoul Olympic Park, June 6–7

Now in its fourth year, the Weverse Con Festival takes place across two stages at Seoul Olympic Park. The KSPO DOME provides the enclosed, stadium-scale indoor venue, while the 88 Grass Field opens up the outdoor festival atmosphere that makes the event unlike a standard arena concert. The June 6–7 dates place the festival in early summer — one of the most active seasons for live music in South Korea.

Organized by HYBE and Weverse Company, the festival has grown steadily since its launch, expanding both in scope and in the ambition of its programming. The addition of a Tribute Stage for this year signals a deepening interest in honoring the genre's history alongside showcasing its present — a meaningful choice for a genre that often moves fast enough to leave its own milestones behind.

The Veteran Acts: Kim Jae Joong and Apink

Of the second lineup's additions, Kim Jae Joong carries the most historical weight. A founding member of TVXQ, the second-generation group that helped define Korean pop music's global expansion in the mid-2000s, Jae Joong has remained one of K-pop's most recognizable solo artists across two decades. He arrives at Weverse Con for his second consecutive appearance having recently claimed the No. 1 position on Japan's Oricon charts with a new release and completed a successful four-city Japan tour. His enduring connection with fans across age groups and borders makes his inclusion a natural anchor for the festival's historical dimension.

Apink enters the festival celebrating their 15th debut anniversary in 2026 — a milestone that puts them among K-pop's longest-running active girl groups. The group swept domestic music charts with their January 2026 mini-album and recently concluded what was described as their most ambitious solo concert series to date. At a moment when the K-pop industry cycles through acts on a rapid timeline, Apink's sustained chart presence and consistent fanbase are genuinely rare, and their Weverse Con slot underscores that longevity matters alongside novelty.

The Returning Powerhouses

BOYNEXTDOOR, the six-member group formed under KOZ Entertainment (a HYBE subsidiary), are making their fourth consecutive Weverse Con appearance — a streak that reflects the depth of their live reputation. Described by industry observers as a "next-generation performance powerhouse," their back-to-back festival returns suggest a group building durable momentum rather than riding a single moment. Debuting in May 2023, BOYNEXTDOOR have spent their relatively brief career accumulating the kind of consistent live presence that typically takes groups much longer to establish.

TWS, the PLEDIS Entertainment six-piece whose members debuted in 2024, come to Weverse Con for the third consecutive year — a striking streak for a group this early in its career. Their return arrives at a particularly high-profile moment: Rolling Stone has just named TWS to its 2026 Future 25 list, recognizing them as one of the most exciting and energetic young groups in contemporary K-pop. That external validation, from one of Western music journalism's most respected publications, adds a new layer of significance to a festival appearance that might otherwise seem routine.

AMPERS&ONE join the bill for their first Weverse Con appearance after completing a tour circuit spanning North America and Asia. Arriving as a road-tested act, they bring the kind of stage confidence that comes from extended touring — a different energy than groups making their major festival debut directly from comeback promotions.

The Meaning of the Generational Mix

In K-pop fan culture, generational categories are deeply felt distinctions. The gap between Kim Jae Joong's second-generation era — defined by synchronized choreography, strict training systems, and the early years of Hallyu's international push — and TWS's fifth-generation moment — characterized by global fandom from day one, social media-native promotion, and hyper-competitive market saturation — is not just chronological. It represents different eras of production aesthetics, fan relationship dynamics, and industry infrastructure.

For a single festival to span that arc is unusual, and it creates an event dynamic that goes beyond typical concert programming. When Kim Jae Joong fans, Apink's 15-year-old fandom, and the intensely engaged followers of BOYNEXTDOOR and TWS gather in the same space, the festival becomes a genuine cross-generational meeting. Different communities, different musical eras, different cultural contexts — all sharing the same two days at Seoul Olympic Park.

HYBE's deliberate construction of that range, rather than grouping acts by era or demographic, signals an intent to make Weverse Con a statement about the breadth of Korean pop music rather than a targeted moment for a single audience segment.

What's Still to Come

With 20 acts confirmed and the final announcement still pending, the 2026 Weverse Con Festival is on track to be its most expansive edition yet. The April reveal will add the remaining performers and provide details on the Tribute Stage — a portion of the program that may yet hold the most significant surprise in this year's lineup.

For fans, the confirmed picture is already compelling. Two days at Seoul Olympic Park in June will bring together artists representing nearly the full span of modern K-pop's history. The festival's generational range is, in itself, a kind of argument — about what the genre is, where it has come from, and how many different kinds of fans it can gather into the same room at the same time.