Beautiful boys and merch madness: 12 hours of K-pop heaven at Seventeen’s South Korea concert

• I flew to Seoul for the opening leg of the mega boyband Seventeen’s new tour.
• Cue a day full of merchandise, a lot of lines, and rocking good fun.
• It also gave me insight into why bands like Seventeen are doing so well, even in the US.

“I’m crossing oceans to see Joshua Hong, and this is going to change my life,” I said in my friend group chat, drunk with victory, with my prize from the Seventeen concert ticketing war in hand.

To be clear, I didn’t meet the US-born member of the boy band Seventeen, but I did hop on an international flight to see him and the group perform.

On September 13 and 14, Seventeen kicked off their world tour at the Asiad Stadium in Incheon, just outside Seoul. This tour is set to bring Seventeen, one of the mega-label Hybe’s biggest moneymakers, to cities across the US and Japan. More tour dates, including stops in other regions, may soon be announced.

A week and change on from my jaunt to South Korea, I’ve returned with insight into the magnetizing allure of K-pop — and an idea of why bands like Seventeen do so well internationally, even in the US.

Ticketing for K-pop is a blood sport

It isn’t the first time I’ve traveled to see a show. In June, I went to Sydney and Melbourne to watch performances by the cast of the LA-based “Dungeons & Dragons” show, Critical Role.

But ticketing for K-pop is a blood sport that requires an excellent internet connection and lightning-fast fingers. Like the “Eras Tour” ticketing wars, trying to get a decent electronic queue number during the band’s August presale involved no small amount of luck.

I secured seats on the fifth floor, with a clear central view of the stage. My ticket for September 14 cost 132,000 South Korean won, or $95.

I got overwhelmed by a sea of fan-made merchandise.

I hopped off an Uber to the stadium just before noon and was immediately greeted by a sea of fans browsing unofficial merchandise several hundred meters from the stadium gates.

I figured I’d just gaze at the merch offerings. But I soon found myself diligently browsing a wild assortment of “cheering kits,” cloth banners emblazoned with the face of your boy-of-choice.

Each banner went for around $13. Before I knew it, I was trying to fit a dozen of them into my backpack, along with three gigantic fans with Hong’s face on them.

Then came the time to pick up my official merchandise. I’d engaged the help of a group order manager on Telegram. These intermediaries are fans willing to show up at the venue way before the merch booths open, then brave the heat and snaking queues to help procure items.

With my proxy’s help, I picked up a mini haul worth around $150, with a small fee for each item.

Some $300 later, my pre-trip resolution to stick to a $50 merch budget seemed laughable.

There was plenty of walking and waiting around in the heat, but community at every turn.

One thing that doesn’t often show up in glamorous K-pop concert TikToks is the amount of walking and climbing you’ll have to do. I clocked around 20,000 steps that afternoon, picking up my wristband and visiting booths around the stadium grounds.

Still, there was a sense of community among the Carats, the band’s name for its fandom. I was also offered tiny gift bags of sweets, paper fans, and packets of tissue, which were welcome in the oppressive heat.

When the show started, the atmosphere was electric.

I was a sweaty mess when I climbed into my nosebleed seat on the fifth floor at around 6:20 p.m., 10 minutes before the show was set to start.

All of that was forgotten when the nine members of Seventeen came out onstage in full concert regalia, opening the show with fresh tracks from their latest album, “Happy Burstday.”

It’s an amazing experience to see one’s favorite K-pop boy live.

I subjected my seatmate — a woman from China who had also traveled there alone — to some unhinged screaming whenever Hong’s face flashed on the jumbo-sized LED screens.

“Isn’t he amazing?” I said. “That’s my bias! Right there!”

In K-pop vernacular, the term “bias ” essentially refers to your favorite band member. Fans can also have bias-wreckers — members who constantly make you question your devotion to your main man.

This system of bias-ing is facilitated by the ample supply of individual merchandise for each group member. And fandom dedication to stars has tangible bottom-line results for companies like Hybe, the agency that owns Seventeen’s label, Pledis.

In 2023, according to statistics compiled by Goldman Sachs, Seventeen sold 4.5 million albums in week one of their “FML” album release, breaking BTS’s record of 3.3 million copies.

I rented a Samsung phone ahead of time to try to get the best possible fancams. It was worth it.

Earlier that morning, I had made my way to a café in Seoul’s Hongdae area to pick up a rented Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. K-pop fans on TikTok have touted Samsung’s phones as ideal for fancams because of their 20x zoom function. The rental cost was around $40.

After using the Samsung for a couple of shots, I stowed my iPhone 16 for the rest of the concert.

But a couple of songs in, I started to feel like I wasn’t watching the concert as much as I was trying to film snippets of it.

With that in mind, I used my rented phone a lot less in the second half. Everyone around me seemed to have their phones still out; some fans even mounted them on handheld tripods to keep the devices stable. Enjoying the concert, sans fancams, was way more fun.

Fans were on the lookout for Seventeen’s four inactive members.

There are nine active members in the 13-member group.

Still, fans were delighted when all the non-active members — Jeonghan, Wonwoo, Hoshi, and Woozi, who are serving a mandatory service period in South Korea’s armed forces — showed up in the stands to support the team.

The group rallied well despite being four people down.

The band more than made up for the absences, particularly with a series of pitch-perfect solo performances. Apart from Hong’s “Fortunate Change,” standouts for the night for me came in dancer Xu Minghao’s EDM track “Skyfall” and the band’s leader S. Coup’s “Jungle.”

Carats in the US will get their taste of this soon. Come October, the group will hit a string of American cities, including a stop in Los Angeles, Hong’s hometown.

It looks like their label has plenty planned for that stop, including a massive collaboration with the city of LA, and companies from ride-hailing service Waymo to Airbnb.

Seventeen has created a safe space for sisterhood.

The day after the concert, I nursed a sore throat (from all that screaming) while roaming around Seoul’s Seongsu, a Brooklyn-esque shopping district.

A Carat from Hong Kong told me she’d spotted the Seventeen photocard keychain on my handbag. Unprompted, she informed me that a makeup store offering photocards of member Jeonghan was just one block down.

“Don’t miss it, sister,” she said in Cantonese. “Not many left!”

It’s over now, but I’d do it one more time.

Being a K-pop fan can be a source of some unfounded shame, especially for a woman making her way in the corporate world.

But for one night, it hadn’t mattered. So what if I wanted to hang boy paper keychains on my backpack? So what if I’d become the proud owner of not one but three massive fans with Hong’s face on them?

Much like the older members of Seventeen, I am only in my early 30s, and there is much more rocking good fun to be had. And maybe we can all be happier and freer to love what we love, the way we do in Caratland.

As my Uber slid away from the stadium, back toward the glittering lights of Seoul, I thought: Let’s do this again.

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