Elated fans of BTS gathered on Thursday for the K-pop group’s first live concert in South Korea in over two years, an event that was expected to draw as many as 15,000 people — despite Covid restrictions that barred cheering, screaming or singing.
“It still feels like a dream,” said Park Hyunjun, 40, a freelance video producer from the city of Incheon, west of Seoul. Outside Seoul Olympic Stadium on Thursday, she held a poster bearing the concert’s slogan: “Of course, nothing has changed between us.”
It was the first large-scale gathering of BTS fans in South Korea since the band’s last concert in their home country, in October 2019. The multibillion-dollar act performed live in Los Angeles in November, but for most of the pandemic it has been livestreaming instead.
In 2020, the group set a Guinness world record for attracting the most viewers for a livestreamed music concert. The pandemic did not only pause the band’s live concerts: Five of BTS’s seven members have been infected with the coronavirus. They have since recovered from Covid-19.
The concert Thursday, the largest approved by the South Korean government since the pandemic began, was taking place amid an Omicron wave that has driven caseloads in the country to unprecedented highs. On Thursday, the health authorities reported 327,549 new daily cases. But the government, which says the country must learn to live with the virus, has been loosening some restrictions.
In and around the stadium on Thursday, 750 safety personnel were enforcing virus protocols, muting the festivities somewhat.
“Please get moving once you’re done taking pictures,” fans taking group photos in front of the stadium’s entrance were told. “Please keep your distance to prevent the spread of Covid.”
Fans’ temperatures were being taken before they entered the stadium. Rapid antigen kits were being made available for people with high temperatures, said the band’s agency, Hybe. And concertgoers had to enter through designated entrances, and during specific time slots, so they would not flow in all at once.
Fans were also prohibited from cheering, screaming or singing along during the concert, and they had to keep their masks on, except to drink water. And attendance at the stadium, which can seat about 70,000 people, was being limited to 15,000.
Acclaimed K-pop band BTS is set to entertain its fans with their first live in-person concerts in two years, in Seoul. The ‘BTS Permission to Dance On Stage Concert: Seoul’ is set to be held from 10 to 13 March, 2022. The event will be followed by a four-day Live Play event in Las Vegas, which will be held in April.
BTS Concert 2022 Live
Watch BTS Concert 2022 Seoul
BTS Permission To Dance On Stage Concert 2022 live
Watch BTS 2022 Concert Online
The show comes after the tremendous success of the ‘BTS Permission to Dance On Stage Concert: Los Angeles’, which was held in November 2021.
The news of the ‘Permission to Dance On Stage Concert: Seoul’ was first announced on 16 February by the band’s agency Big Hit Music on the global community platform Weverse. All the concerts can be viewed in online live-streaming mode and offline as well.
Permission to Dance On Stage Concert in Seoul
The 12 March concert can be attended in-person and also watched at selected movie theatres around the world. The concerts on 10 and 13 March can be attended both offline and online.
Live viewing of the 12 March concert will be held at 5:45 pm KST. Fans can buy tickets on the websites of selected theatres. More information is available on BTSPTDLIVECINEMAS.com.
The concert will be in Korea and there will be no subtitles in any other language.
Fans can bring their ‘ARMY BOMB’, the official BTS light stick, if the theatres permit. Live viewing showtime will be posted 15 minutes earlier than the actual concert time.
The live performance of the 10 March concert will be available for online streaming on 19 March while that of the 13 March concert will be available on 20 March. Both online streams will be held at 10 am KST.
According to Big Hit Music, the delayed streaming is a replay event of the main performance’s live stream and will be offered only in HD single-view.
Only those who have ‘BTS Permission to Dance On Stage Seoul’ online live streaming ticket can watch the online streaming.
Asian countries where live performance and repeat performance of the Seoul concert will be available via feed are Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan and South Korea, along with several European, South American and North American countries beside Australia.