KCON is back and live for the first time in two years, and the global K-pop festival will be featuring some of the biggest acts to celebrate the return of in-person concerts, including the six teams that will compete on the upcoming survival program “Queendom 2.”

CJ ENM, the event’s organizer, on Tuesday announced the full line-up of performers set to hit the stage during the two-day “KCON 2022 Premiere” in Seoul this May.

A total of 13 acts will be performing at the Seoul concert set for May 7-8 at CJ ENM Studio. The list includes high-profile boy bands Highlight, Monsta X and The Boyz, and rookie groups STAYC, TO1, NMIXX and NiziU.

Also performing at the Seoul concerts are the six female K-pop acts set to compete in the second season of Mnet’s popular competition program “Queendom” – Brave Girls, Loona, Kep1er, Viviz, WJSN and soloist Hyolyn. “Queendom 2” will air its first episode on March 31.

According to CJ ENM, “KCON 2022 Premiere” will be a set of preliminary shows leading up to the main event, “KCON 2022,” which will start in Los Angeles in August and head to Tokyo, Japan, in October. Following the first two “KCON 2022 Premiere” performances, the series will continue to Makuhari Messe Hall in Chiba, east of Tokyo, on May 14-15 and Rosemont Theatre in Chicago on May 20-21.

First held in California in 2012, with the aim of becoming the world’s top Korean culture event, KCON has played a key role in promoting Korean music, drama, beauty and food, beyond the country and bringing K-pop and its artists closer to their overseas fans.

Amid the increasing global popularity of K-pop and Korean cultural content, KCON events have taken place in nine global cities in North America, Europe and the Middle East, with the cumulative 1.1 million attendees as of 2019 when the last on-site event was held.

In celebration of the festival’s 10th anniversary this year, CJ ENM will upgrade KCON’s content to reflect the new cultural trends of Generation Z -- those born between the mid-1990s and the early 2010s -- and prepare programs tailored for each city, the company explained.

Based on the experience of holding the concert series online over the past two years, the company will livestream some programs during “KCON 2022” in Los Angeles and Tokyo.