Anushka Sen, global celebs to ring in New Year in Seoul

Thousands of global celebrity infuencers, including Indian TV actress and model Anushka Sen, are set to ring in the New Year at a content festival in Seoul, attending various events such as a K-pop concert and "Squid Game" challenges. 

The Seoul Metropolitan Government and the city's affilliated Seoul Business Agency (SBA) on Thursday announced plans to hold the three-day SEOULCon from Dec. 30. Invited to the event are some 3,000 global influencers, together boasting 3 billion followers on online social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.

DJSoda, a South Korean female DJ with more than 23 million followers, OnOppa, a South Korean TikTok creator with 21 million followers, Kristel Fulgar, a Filipino actress with 18 million followers and Karimova Elina, an Uzbekistan-born South Korean creator with 17 million followers, were named as SEOULCon Ambassadors.

Young influencers such as Kika Kim, a Korean-Kazakhstani with followers of more than 51 million, Anushka Sen with over 50 million followers and Unice Wani, a digital creator with more than 15 million followers, are scheduled to attend the festival, according to the SBA.

The celebrities are set to livestream the country’s annual midnight bell-ringing ceremony on Dec. 31 in Seoul, which is predicted to attract about 500 million viewers across the world, an SBA official said.

“SEOULCon is expected to make global Generation MZers want to celebrate the New Year not in New York but in Seoul,” said SBA CEO Kim Hyun Woo told reporters, referring to the demographic made up of millennials and members of Generation Z.

K-POP, 'SQUID GAME' AND FAKER

The festival at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP), a major urban development landmark in central Seoul, will include a variety of events and conferences. 

Influencers and other participants will attend the main event, the SEOULCon X World K-pop Festival & Countdown starting at 6 p.m. on Dec. 31 local time and running for 12 hours. All 4,000 tickets for the concert including performances of various artists, such as Korean-American rapper Jay Park and Korean singer Chung Ha, were sold out in five minutes.

Members of South Korean video game team T1, the winner of the 2023 League of Legends World Championship, led by local hero and professional player Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok are scheduled to meet e-sports fans on Dec. 30.

Cast members of “Physical: 100,” the hit survival show on world’s top streaming service Netflix Inc., are set to play games based on those in the Netflix blockbuster series “Squid Game” such as the Dalgona Candy Challenge with the participating influencers. Players must carve shapes out of the wafer-thin snacks -- made from sugar and baking soda -- in the game, which sparked a trend on TikTok.

Cast members of “Single’s Inferno,” a South Korean reality series on Netflix, will give love and dating advice to the influencers.

The metropolitan government and the SBA aim to expand South Korean lifestyle, culture and products in the international market through global influencers and their content at SEOULCon.

Exports of $100 million in K-content are expected to increase overseas sales of consumer products to $180 million, according to the Export-Import Bank of Korea, the country’s official export credit agency.

“We aim to hold the event every year to develop Seoul into a city leading personal media and business trends through SEOULCon,” Kim said.

Write to Hae-Ryon Choi at haeryon@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.