BTS Concert in Busan – free to view tonight
Over on Twitter, I realized that I have not seen a single mention in western media of the huge, free concert BTS is performing in Busan, South Korea on Oct. 15 at 6 pm KST. That’s tonight at 3 am MDT for those of us in Colorado, so I’m looking at another all-night romp.
The concert is free to attend, and the non-transferable tickets ran out in minutes. The effort is in support of the city’s bid to host the 2030 World Expo, to show that what seems like a sleepy seaside city can present a major world event. Fortunately for those of us who can’t attend, the concert will be streamed free at the links below.
Busan is the hometown of BTS members Jungkook and Jimin, and the city has gone all out to turn the city purple for BTS and ARMY. Flights into the city have been full for days, and all the hotels are packed. Over 100,000 people are expected at the concert itself, with outdoor livestream areas for the overflow crowds.
No doubt millions of people in all corners of the globe will be watching online as well. Here are the links for live viewing. Let’s hope the servers hold up.
Weverse Live (where most of us will watch)
Zepeto (available in app only)
Naver
To test the servers, Weverse has been showing concert footage free at scheduled times, and before the concert they will share a viewing of two BTS documentaries, Bring the Soul and Break the Silence, along with performance videos. These documentaries haven’t been seen online in a long while as near as I can tell, so here is your chance to learn more about BTS and their remarkable journey from a little-known band to the largest pop sensation in the world today. These start at 11:10 am KST (8:10 pm MDT).
I’ve expressed in other posts what a force for good I think BTS and ARMY have become, and hopefully will continue to be moving forward. In the middle of the world’s pain and struggles these days, here is a chance to join together in some hopeful music, to dance and sing and laugh for a while. I will always love BTS for giving me that.
Next day’s report: It’s always interesting to sit up all night at my age. I got a few hours of sleep, but I’m pretty worn out today.
Busan as a city handled the ARMY incursion beautifully, near as I can tell. Everyone I saw was having a wonderful time. And everything was purple, everywhere. Boraland indeed.
BTS as themselves gave a most excellent concert, at least the parts I got to see and the clips I’ve seen since. Dancing like wild people, passionate and gorgeous. I can’t wait to see it all again.
Not least because Weverse really wasn’t up to the task of streaming 50 million streams. I heard they’d planned for about 20 million, but whatever they did was inadequate. I only used the legal, free links and the resolution was constantly shifting and blurring, and — to my eternal sorrow — entire songs dropped away into a blank screen. I caught most of it, but it was very frustrating.
Let’s hope they get the replay link up fast, and with subtitles quickly too.
PS: The livestream afterwards with j-hope, V, Jimin, and Jungkook was delightful. They were all so happy and smiling together. Hope that one gets subtitled quickly too, but even though I had to switch in and out to the fan translations I loved seeing them.
ETA: The livestream subtitles were up as of yesterday. It was wonderful to listen in a more conversational way.
And this is great news: Weverse will rerun the entire concert on Sunday, Oct 23 at 11 am KST. That’s Saturday night at 8 pm for me, a totally reasonable time! I can’t wait.