K-pop Forever! Tribute review: A happy assault on the senses as Live at the Marquee begins in Cork
K POP Forever! Tribute on stage at Live At The Marquee in Cork on Wednesday. They play a second show at the venue on Thursday June 11. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
Summer in Cork has officially started. The Live at the Marquee season 2026 got underway with a night of special K on Wednesday, all glowlights and giddiness, as kicked off this year's six-week series.
The first of two shows brought devotees down the Centre Park Rd for what was officially the youngest ever crowd for a Marquee show, with a further sellout performance planned on Thursday.
K Pop may be a global phenomenon, but this slice of Korean culture is still something novel to this oldboy. I was not alone in my ignorance on Wednesday night, but an audience largely made up of pre-adolescents and tweens, and their parents, lapped it up on Leeside in the all-new Marquee tent, getting its first outing.
The success of Oscar-winning Netflix animated musical hit film K Pop Demon Hunters — the most-watched original title in Netflix history — in 2025 has sent the genre into overdrive for a new generation of fans.
It was this crew who filled the Marquee on Wednesday evening, and I brought my own three demons along for their very own Marquee debut.
Outside, there was a family atmosphere, children packing picnic tables, brimming with excitement in the evening sun like the first day of a pre-teen Electric Picnic. Inside, the all-seated gig, though only half full, was still a massive hit: all-singing, all-dancing in the aisles, and a hype DJ keeping the party going.
K-Pop Forever! relies heavily on K-Pop Demon Hunters hits like and to wow its audience, but the performers are not Huntrix, the fictional (and animated) band featuring in the Netflix hit.
The show also picks liberally from bands like Blackpink, BTS, and Katseye, with songs like , , and sating an excited young crowd.
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On its Irish debut in Belfast in February, this tribute show left some parents spitting out their kimchi, unimpressed that they weren't witnessing the real .
That cartoonish outrage and the teething problems has dissipated, judging by the reaction on Wednesday night.
K-Pop gets bums on (and off) seats: The show had already sold out shows in the Cork Opera House in May before this two-night return to the city for Live at the Marquee. Across the river in the Everyman, a show called K-Pop All Stars has sold out two July shows and returns in August due to demand.
The K-Pop Forever! world tour in the Marquee will see further Irish dates this summer in Killarney, Limerick, Drogheda, and Letterkenny.
is a happy assault on the senses, with impressive lighting, pyrotechnics, and ticker-tape cannons. The children, mostly aged 6 to 9, were in their element; the double-digit age gang, too cool for school, poutily prancing along too.
It is brash and booming, and most of the mams and dads — ah yes, we were the future once upon a time, too — were happy to be a little bemused, befuddled, and bopping along.
But for the youngsters, well, it was always gonna be golden.
Support on the night came from the KK Sisters — two talented Kildare girls, Kerry-Ann McCreery and Katelyn Harrington, performing covers of the likes of Gracie Abrams, Chappell Roan, and Olivia Rodrigo. Indeed, Katelyn recently won the German edition of , and the pair have already amassed 834,000 TikTok followers.
show returns to the Marquee on Thursday night for another sold-out show.
On Friday, Imelda May returns to the Cork stage before David Gray completes a weekend takeover with shows on Saturday (sold out) and Sunday.
This year's Live at the Marquee series runs until July 18, and over the coming weeks features the likes of Paul Weller, Christy Moore, Kneecap, Kesha, James Taylor, a double of the Marquee Masters darts tournament, and Scottish comedian Kevin Bridges.
Across the city, Kingfishr perform the first of two evenings at Virgin Media Park on Thursday, getting this year's concert series at the Munster Rugby venue up and running.
