Music City Mall is hosting a free festival surrounding K-pop culture from 11 a.m. to 7:45 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 26 and from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 27. Not only is this event used as a tool to pull together North Texas K-pop fans, but also to advertise the mall and its new store, Zion Market, a Korean-based grocery store and restaurant. Being heavily involved with this festival to spread Korean culture, the festival takes place right in front of Zion Market.

The festival was created by K-pop Together in honor of Korean heritage. This festival has been heavily advertised in surrounding cities, not including the two pop-up performances prior to the festival called “K-pop Pop Off,” which took place in Music City Mall on Saturday, Oct. 12 and Saturday, Oct. 19. These two events acted as awareness for the overall festival. K-pop club president and senior Lauryn Saengchanthavong, along with her friends involved in the club, performed in the two days of the “K-pop Pop Off” events.

“We did practice because we wanted to leave a good impression to people walking by,” Saengchanthavong said. “On the first Saturday, we performed ‘ITZY’s [song] ‘ICY’ and ‘BLACKPINK’s [song] ‘BOOMBAYAH’ [on Sunday].”

Each day is planned to the fullest with vendors, K-pop based games, contests and performances from Korean girl-groups Weki-Meki and Chic Angel. The former group is exceptionally popular within Korea, receiving up to 10 million views on their music videos. Fans were surprised by the two groups being announced to perform at the free event because of how popular the girls are.

“The fact that [the Weki Meki concert] is only an hour but [entry is] free, that sounds great,” Saengchanthavong said. “Lewisville isn’t a very big place. I was like, ‘Is this real? This must be a joke.’ I was really surprised.”

To make the event feel fitting to the community, the band will perform a 30-minute set. The band isn’t new to the mall, it being the place they have their annual play-a-thon. The select members who volunteered to participate will play a mix of K-pop songs including “MIC Drop” by BTS.

“We love the band,” marketing director Cari Williams said. “K-pop Together asked how they can be more involved in the community, we told them ‘You need to call the band, they’re amazing.’”

The organization is also bringing in popular Korean YouTuber “Beautifymeeh,” who has more than 500 thousand subscribers attending. The travel, lifestyle and beauty blogger will have her own hour- long session called “How to do Makeup like an IDOL.”

“We are open and we have a lot of fun things going on,” Williams said. “We are more than just your average shopping mall. We’ve got all kinds of really cool experiences.”

Promoting Korean culture is rooted in this two-day event. People across the community and internationally have come together to not only encourage traction to the mall itself, but to Zion Market, different vendors and the groups performing.

“Knowing any culture is good,” Spanish teacher and K-pop club sponsor Veronica Zamora said. “It’s really important that we get into one culture to discover the good things. [It will] increase our own education.”