That Thing I Wanna Say About KPOP Concert Fan Projects …..

Banners. Fan chants. Balloons or light sticks.

Why is it that we US fans can’t pull off a concert fan project?

I’m going to say the really important part first: FAN PROJECTS ARE NOT FOR US. Even lightsticks aren’t for us. They’re for our idols. I know we’re all super excited to see them in concert and I know we’re busy staring/thirsting/fangirling-boying/and whatnot when we finally get them in front of us on stage. But all I can think is that we’re SO selfish about seeing them that we completely forget that to simply lift a banner during a song – even if it blocks someone else’s view – is not meant for us to be seen. It’s meant for them to enjoy. Someone’s banner is blocking your view? Is your view as important when compared with the people who are up there on the stage? Lightsticks are a thing they can see past the glare of the spotlights that are constantly blazing into their eyes – they might not be able to see our faces, or even hear us past their earpieces, but they can see an ocean of light sticks. But your arm is tired. So what? They are tired. If they can dance and sing and rap for two hours straight with barely a break, then I can hold a goddamned lightstick in the air and cheer for them. And I’m over 30 years old – if I can hold my lightstick up for two hours, then so the hell can you. If I can remember which song to hold my banner up for, then so the hell can you! The point of fan projects is simply to make your idols happy. And it does! It really does. It’s to give them a boost while they sweat and toil and kick their own asses to give us the best stages they can put on. These actions and these projects represent a welcome as well as a thank you; it’s how we can show our appreciation to them in a visible, memorable way.

But I guess it also requires that we stop thinking about ourselves for a hot second. Few of us are very good at that.

And I guess that’s the answer to my question, but I’m gonna keep talking about it. You can stop here, if you want – I’ve said ‘it would be great if we stopped being so goddamed selfish’ (in a manner of speaking), so that’s pretty much the point. But.

I know that these are things that are so rare in western music concerts – but they are literally a quintessential part of a KPop show. If you are a Kpop fan, you WILL see it everywhere: on fan cams, YouTube videos, news clips, where loyal fans have hold banners with messages to their idols, where they’ve even purchased ad space on buses and billboards to congratulate someone on a birthday or a comeback release….and then at the concerts, with hundreds to thousands of coloured balloons during the day or their light sticks in the darkened arena. Die hard fans’ hearts swell with pride at the sight of sapphire blue/crimson/pearl aqua/mandarin orange/rose/silver/purple/onyx black/yellow/diamond oceans of manifest colour pulsing to every beat. And you hear them, too, sometimes, chanting words specifically selected as the cheer for each song.

We know it’s possible. We know it’s a thing that our idols really enjoy. But after all I’ve seen this year, I can only think that we’re too wrapped up in ourselves and what we want to accomplish something like this for them.

Now, until recently, I hadn’t been to a lot of KPop events. Concerts had been few and far between here and due to a sheer lack of serendipity, when groups I wanted to see did come over to the US, I happened to be in Europe with family or half way across the country or something like that. (Note, I’m not complaining about being in Europe. It’s only that because my family lives there, I’ve been many times – for me, the chance to see SHINee, or Super Junior, or BIGBANG or TVXQ or 2PM or now BTS was far more rare.) Essentially, I spent about 6 years wishing and missing – I contented myself the thought that one day, surely, I’d see at least one of the groups I’d come to fall in love with – and with fan cams. Heh.

Finally this year all my planning and saving paid off. I went to not one, but FIVE events – the BTS TRB tour in Chicago, the BIGBANG Made tour in NJ, KCon LA and NY, and the BTS Highlight tour in Toronto. For each and every stop (including the ones I didn’t attend but had friends at), there were fan projects planned. Money donated, banners printed, chants prepared.

To my knowledge, only one of them was completely successful – the NY stop of the BTS Red Bullet tour. The rest – including all five I was at and others besides? Halfway maybe, or not at all. And that is including seeing a venue full of lightsticks – in my opinion, the Highlight Tours and TRB for BTS had more ARMY lightsticks than BIGBANG’s VIPs in New Jersey on Sunday.

The thing is, the looks on the boys’ faces when they saw an ocean of not just ARMY bombs, but the banners – which said Korean, “Just One Day with BTS” – was practically incandescent. No, senpai didn’t notice YOU specifically. But he will never forget being in the same place that you were, and that you and all your fellow fans executed your own ‘choreography’ to give him/them a tiny show of your love. Please, please understand that this will stick in his mind for much longer the tiny little heart he threw at you.

So while I realise that there is some portion of it that is “This is what the US __insert fandom here__ can do” … please know that these projects are really for your idols. It’s to give them a small sliver of home-away-from home. It’s to show them that we respect where they are from and we have made and effort to make them more comfortable. They have given – and are and will continue to give – us so many memories. What I’m really hoping is that we can stop for a second and etch into our brains the ability to give them a tiny bit of the same.