“BTS is so back,” leader RM said as the show opened.
The last week has been exhilarating for BTS fans, or “Army,” all over the world, but nowhere was the excitement — and some annoyance — more palpable than in Seoul. I had the great fortune of accidentally being in Seoul at just the right time to attend the free BTS concert in Gwanghwamun Square on Saturday.
I was excited by the intense media coverage leading up to the concert — many papers and online media outlets, including The Korea Herald, had entire sections about BTS. I was excited to participate in a reaction video reviewing the music video for lead single “Swim” from the newly released album “Arirang” with Kim Jae-heun and music critic Lim Hee-yun for this paper.
After the concert, some media coverage suggested that the number of people was “disappointing.” Earlier, estimates were that as many as 260,000 fans would attend. However, many media outlets report far fewer showed.
One local daily quoted Hybe saying that approximately 104,000 attendees were in the area. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety reported that approximately 62,000 were around during the concert. Some articles seem to imply that BTS’ popularity has waned, the event was too costly to the city, or that it unduly inconvenienced residents and workers in the area.
What I saw was the security and crowd control staff working very hard to deal with congestion.
All week, Seoul residents were bombarded with messages about staying out of the area if possible. When I walked over to the area around 2 p.m., six hours before the start of the concert, there were so many police officers and other staff directing traffic that one could not stop walking. I took only a few photos of the area, because I was not allowed to stand long enough to snap more.
Certainly this provided for an extremely safe environment. I never felt any fear of being crushed by crowds. But this means that it would have been impossible for 200,000 to mill around the square. Even the attendees were not allowed to do so. This is not a bad thing, but it meant that people were not allowed to hang around the area of the concert.
My section had to wait for approximately an hour to exit — this is how strictly the crowds were controlled. Again, there were no other people except the 22,000 ticket holders in the areas visible on Netflix for their BTS light sticks known as “Army bombs.”
Everyone had a great time in my section of the concert venue. Things were orderly and I saw no one litter. In fact, someone sitting next to me handed me a hand warmer, while another attendee secretly passed me a cookie.
As we left the venue, there were BTS Army volunteers wearing purple sashes. I didn’t know who they were, but later learned that they were there to help clean up the area.
The concert was amazing, and as a fan, I was happy to see the group back in action. The sound system was especially impressive — better than most concert venues I’ve attended. Unfortunately, RM hurt his ankle in the days leading up to the concert, so he sometimes sat at one end of the stage. His bandmates hovered around him while he was seated, however he did muster it up to stand at times.
While the opening songs from the new album, including “Body to Body” and “FYA,” were crowd-pleasers, my section especially lit up for older songs “Mic Drop,” “Dynamite” and “Butter.” After all, who doesn't love singing “Mianhae, eomma” ("I’m sorry, mom") in “Mic Drop”?
The stage served as a frame for Gwanghwamun, and it especially looked beautiful with the sun setting.
For the Seoul residents who were inconvenienced — and I assume that included millions of people since a large central area of Seoul was closed to traffic — I do feel bad for them. I know that multiple weddings were affected. However, I don’t think there was ever a time when Gwanghwamun was visible to so many people worldwide. Netflix reported that 18.4 million watched the concert in real time. By the end of this week, who knows how many more people will see it?
For most people, they will be on their phones looking up not only “BTS” or “Arirang,” but also “Gwanghwamun,” and through the concert, they will learn a bit more about Seoul and Korea. When I was a kid, Americans mostly knew of Korea through the TV show “M*A*S*H,” and one of my Korean friends was once asked what part of China Korea was in. This is how far Korea has come in the worldwide imagination.
While I am not Korean nor a resident of Seoul, if I were, I would think a bit of inconvenience in my daily life would be worth promoting my culture, city and country to the rest of the world. As a fan, I was really proud of BTS, Seoul and Korea. After all, as one of my favorite BTS songs says, it was “just one day.”
Grace Kao
Grace Kao is an IBM professor of sociology and professor of ethnicity, race and migration at Yale University. The views expressed here are the writer’s own. — Ed.
khnews@heraldcorp.com
