BTS BACK ON STAGE

[Anchor Lead]

BTS have held their first concert with a live audience in two years in Los Angeles. The Kpop sensation have planned four concerts this time, drawing roughly 200,000 fans from all over the world.

[Pkg]

Four hours before the concert, the concert stadium is already awash in purple. Some of these fans have traveled thousands of kilometers over many days to see the first offline BTS concert in two years.

[Soundbite] Crystal, Nick(BTS ARMY)

[Soundbite] Nicole(BTS ARMY)

Long lines formed from early morning at the BTS souvenir shops around the stadium.

[Soundbite] Guzmil, Cathy(BTS ARMY)

Gates opened two hours before the concert but some fans were only able to go inside after the show started because they had to show their vaccination records and undergo security checks. And the long-awaited concert finally started. Army posted live concert videos on their social media sites to show the feverish atmosphere at the stadium. Fans who couldn’t purchase tickets still came to the stadium and danced to the songs and cheers coming from inside.

[Soundbite] Cassandra(BTS ARMY)

Four concerts were planned in Los Angeles at the largest football stadium in the U.S. with a maximum capacity of 100,000, but all four shows sold out way ahead of time. Forty-seven-thousand people are expected for each concert, amounting to 188,000 for all four shows. But the actual number is likely to pass 200,000 given the number of on-site tickets sold. Scenes from the first concert were not released to the media as it was meant only for the BTS fans who showed up.