Heads up, ARMYs. BTS is taking the concert experience online this weekend at Bang Bang Con, with hours worth of concert footage lined up to stream on Apr. 18 and 19.
Since it’s all for free, you don’t have to brave a long line to get a ticket for this. To complete the concert experience, fans are designing their own concert tickets and sharing it for their fellow ARMYs to print out.
I made tickets for the upcoming concert weekend with working qr codes! I posted them on weverse too🥺
If you all want the file to print your own, let me know #BANGBANGCON #BTS @BTS_twt pic.twitter.com/h3RJOf3FaZ
— To ARMY, whom I love⁷ (@MinYoonBri) April 9, 2020
Wristband versions, working QR codes and even VIP passes? Dope.
I GOT THE TICKET💀🔥❤
where's yours?🙂
feel free to print it for yourself, there's a bonus wristband too❤#BANGBANGCON#BTS_concert_at_home@BTS_twt pic.twitter.com/98gKwMgalu
— ty 🍉 (@joonimissjoonie) April 10, 2020
In fan culture, especially in K-pop fandoms, attending your idol’s concert at least once is one of the ultimate goals. You can purchase as many merch and stream their content as much as you want, but a concert offers the raw experience of being in the moment with the idol and fans alike.
Avid fans know the pre-concert struggle: You’re waiting at ridiculously long ticket lines that some even camp overnight for, only to arrive at the counter and find out that your desired ticket tier (and every other tier you’re gunning for) is sold out.
Or you’re repeatedly refreshing a ticketing site and some unexplainable force messes with your internet connection, causing you to miss out on snagging that ticket by a split second. That dreaded “sold out” text seems to be taunting you.
Or you’re moping at home, scrolling through post after post of fancams and concert photos, clutching your lightstick and wishing you were there.
It may seem ridiculous to cry over tickets when “there’s always next time” or “there are better things to spend that money on anyway” (words I’m sure fans have been told at some point in their lives), but this missed opportunity to meet the people they admire for several, varying reasons means a lot to a fan.
Amid a pandemic, concerts would be a social distancing nightmare. A two-day free online concert you can stream from your home is the next best thing. Fanmade tickets are one way to keep some sort of memory of it, especially for fans who have never even had the concert experience to begin with. With the new normal, performers adapt to the platforms available and fandoms follow suit.
You can stream Bang Bang Con on the BANGTANTV YouTube channel this Apr. 18 and 19 at 11 a.m. Philippine Standard Time.
Photo from the official BTS Facebook page.