With headlining sets on tap at Lollapalooza and local themed businesses, K-pop making a high-profile splash in Chicago

Jin Alonzo, 23, is a sales associate at KPOP NARA in Chicago’s South Loop. The store opened in May and sells a wide variety of K-pop merchandise. (Mendy Kong/WBEZ)

When Lollapalooza opens Thursday in Grant Park, it will be a day of many firsts.

Last year, Lollapalooza booked headliner J-Hope, a soloist from one of the bestselling acts of all time, K-pop group BTS. That put the megafest on fans’ radars. But this year’s event features its first K-pop boy band headliner TOMORROW X TOGETHER on Saturday night, and their girl group labelmate NewJeans, a global phenomenon in their own right, playing the event’s opening day. To the delight of many Midwest fans, the Chicago stop is the latter’s first-ever performance in the U.S.