During August, London is normally quiet from the perspective of Korean events, though nowadays you can usually count on a couple of big K-pop concerts filling the gap in the calendar – such as BlackPink at Wembley. The 80th anniversary of Liberation Day is marked in New Malden with two events that we know of. Elsewhere, Edinburgh is the place to be, provided you’ve got a local friend with a sofa.
Music
- Yunchan Lim Plays Rachmaninov at the Proms on 1 August
- BTS’s Jin: #RUNSEOKJIN_EP.TOUR comes to the o2 on 5 and 6 August
- BlackPink play Wembley Stadium for two nights, 15 and 16 August
- Enhypen’s “Walk the Line” tour comes to London and Manchester, 22 and 25 August
- Balming Tiger play Koko on 26 August
- Inmo Yang makes his Proms debut on 28 August
Exhibitions
- The KCC’s current exhibition, Endless Bonds: AI and Korean Heritage, closes on 22 August
- Mokspace’s current exhibition contains work by Shinwook Kim and Yiyoung Song, closing on 31 August
- Suh Do-ho’s exhibition at Tate Modern continues until the Autumn
Edinburgh festivals
- Hwang Sok-yong appears at the Book Festival on 19 August
- Bomsori Kim gives a violin recital at the International Festival on 14 August
- A wide range of Korean musicians and small theatre companies will be at the Fringe
- A Korean comedian will be performing at the Free festival.
Screenings
- Shan Sang-ok’s North Korean monster movie Pulgasari gets a screening in Hackney Wick on 3 August
- Also on 3 August, the Lumiere Romford will be screening Parasite and The Handmaiden
- Fashion designer Eudon Choi joins the judging panel of The Great British Sewing Bee for their Korea-inspired episode on 5 August on BBC1 (and afterwards on iPlayer)
- For those of you with little ones, you should still be able to find the Bebefinn Sing-Along Movie: Into the Pinkfong World at a local Odeon Cinema
- Hur Jin-ho’s The Last Princess (덕혜옹주) screens at the KCC on 6 August
- Ahn Jae-huun’s Gill (아가미) screens at Frightfest on 25 August
Everything else
- The KCCUK hosts a seminar on Princess Deokhye, 7 August
- August’s Kollab & Kulture event at the Poplar Union focuses on hanbok, 8 August
- The Royal British Legion commemorates the 80th anniversary of VJ Day in New Malden, 15 August
- The Korean communities have further Liberation Day celebrations in New Malden’s Jubilee Square on 16 August
- There are suggestions that 16 August could be Sonny’s last home game at Spurs (v Burnley) – though some say he might depart even earlier
- There’s a Kpop night in Vauxhall on 1 August, and a Kpop afternoon in Rivington Street on 16 August
- There’s a Kpop competition in New Malden’s Beverley Park, 29-31 August
- The Squid Game experience is on at ExCel (daily except Tuesdays)
- DGC Dance continues its programme of K-pop dance sessions
Books expected during August
- Roadkill, by Amil tr Archana Madhavan pub Harvill
- The Midnight Shift, by Cheon Seon-ran tr Gene Png pub Bloomsbury
- Break Room, by Mi-ye Lee tr Sandy Joosun Lee pub Wildfire
- Cultural Production of Hallyu in the Digital Platform Era, by Dal Yong Jin pub University of Michigan Press
- Against the Chains of Utility: Sacrifice and Literature in 1970s and 1980s South Korea, by Serk-Bae Suh pub University of Hawai’i Press