Before the pandemic, I attended my first BTS concert that took place back in 2019.

After a few years of being an ARMY (BTS fandom name) member, I managed to get tickets to their Love Yourself: Speak Yourself World Tour concert being held at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA.

My experience was still enjoyable even though I was sitting far from the stage. Just seeing thousands of fans with their ARMY bombs (BTS lightstick name) light up in different colors made the atmosphere feel surreal. It was more immersive than merely watching concert clips from a screen.

A year later, they announced their upcoming 2020 Map of the Soul Tour which I planned to attend. But unfortunately, the pandemic struck and left not only me, but thousands of fans who were excited to go, disappointed.

According to RollingStone, “The dates have all been postponed, with rescheduled dates to be “announced soon,” according to the Ticketmaster website.

Despite the world facing a crisis, BTS stepped in and formed a special surprise for ARMY members: they were going to hold their first virtual concerts as an alternative to their postponed ones. One was a 2-day weekend concert held in October, 2020 which according to variety had “brought in 993,000 viewers representing 191 countries or regions,” meaning that almost 1 million pay-per-view tickets were sold! There was also a live online streaming event that fans could watch for free on Youtube. This showcase was a playback of BTS’s past concerts.

Although I only watched their free online streaming event last year, I still missed the feeling I had back from an in-person concert.