Six K-pop artists will be unable to perform in a music event in Los Angeles due to US work visa issues.
The KAMP LA 2022 will be held on Oct. 15 and 16 at Rose Bowl Stadium featuring Monsta X, Super Junior, EXO’s Kai, iKON, GOT7’s BamBam, Jeon Somi, Zion.T, Lapillus, P1HARMONY, Girls’ Generation’s Taeyeon, Aespa, T1419, Momoland, EPIK HIGH and Chung Ha.
However, on Oct. 14, KAMP released a statement that Kai, Taeyeon, BamBam, Jeon Somi, Lapillus and Zion.T will not perform due to the visa issue.
“We regret to inform you that we learned today that the following artists are unable to travel as planned due to unforeseen US work visa issues and circumstances outside of the artists' & promoters' control: BamBam, Jeon Somi, Kai, Lapillus, Taeyeon & Zion.T.”
It added, “Most of these artists were scheduled to appear on Saturday's lineup. We have increased artist set lengths on Saturday and have added Momoland and T1419 as special guests on Saturday as well. Momoland and T1419 will both still perform Sunday as originally planned. Super Junior, iKON, and P1Harmony will still be performing as scheduled on Saturday.”
According to KAMP, “Anyone holding a single day Saturday ticket is entitled to a full refund, or 50% refund off of a two-day ticket. For those seeking a refund, you should have received an email from [email protected] by 5pm PDT today as to how to request your refund. You will have up until 12 noon PDT, on Saturday, October 15 to request your refund.”
“We apologize for this very difficult and unforeseen circumstance. Please contact us for further inquiries,” it said.
SM Entertainment, the agency of EXO and Girls’ Generation, released a statement on behalf of Kai and Taeyeon to say that the organizer of the festival was in charge of getting work visas for the artists.
“The organizer was in charge of visa approvals related to the performance, and we cooperated in advance and provided all the necessary documents needed in the process,” the agency said.
It added, “However, we were informed that TAEYEON's performance visa been approved in the end.”
“We ask for your understanding for not being able to inform the fans sooner, as the organizer was in the process of checking the visa status of several other artists other than our own whose visas have also not been processed,” it said.