Interest surged as soon as reservations opened. When offline viewing tickets went on sale at 8 p.m. on the 23rd, heavy traffic from around the world quickly overwhelmed the booking site, NOL Ticket.
Kim, a 29-year-old office worker, said she logged in 30 minutes early but the screen froze at 8 p.m. and showed about 30,000 people waiting. “In the end, I couldn’t complete the reservation,” she said.
Despite the show being free, posts offering scalped tickets for hundreds of thousands of won appeared on social media soon after sales began.
Organizers said the venue will be built around a main stage installed across from the Gwanghwamun Woldae, with about 15,000 seats. A mix of standing and reserved seating will be used near the statue of Adm. Yi Sun-sin. Of the standing-area spots closest to the stage, 2,000 seats will be assigned by lottery among those who preordered the new album. Large LED screens will be placed in limited-view areas, and some pedestrian routes will be restricted under safety guidelines.
The event will also be carried online. Netflix will exclusively livestream the Gwanghwamun performance worldwide as its first live event from South Korea.
A Netflix official said it would be “a true live moment” in which viewers around the world share the same experience at the same time, beyond language and cultural barriers.
Live-viewing ticket sales for next month’s Goyang and Tokyo concerts also opened on the 25th, with plans to host fans at about 3,800 locations across 80 countries and regions.
Travel indicators also reflected the surge. Hotels.com said that in the 48 hours after the tour plan was announced, overseas searches for trips to Seoul rose 155% from the previous week. Searches for Busan, which is scheduled to host a June show, jumped 2,375%, led by major Asian markets including Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Domestic searches also climbed sharply, with searches for Seoul up 190% and Busan up 3,855%.
The show is designed around the concept of the new album, “Arirang,” highlighting Korean aesthetics in the Gyeongbokgung Palace and Gwanghwamun area. The members will open by marching along the “King’s Road” from Geunjeongmun Gate to the Woldae. The stage will use the Woldae, restored after 100 years, as a backdrop. Organizers also plan a new-song stage with an Arirang traditional music ensemble and dancers, and a media facade to light up the Gwanghwamun wall that evening.
BTS will release its fifth full-length album, “Arirang,” worldwide at 1 p.m. on March 20, the day before the concert. The 14 new songs will be unveiled live for the first time at Gwanghwamun on March 21. On the 27th, Netflix will release the documentary “BTS: The Return” about the album’s production. The group is then set to begin a world tour in April in Goyang, with 82 shows in 34 cities.
* This article has been translated by AI.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.