Home > National > Social Affairs

ARMY organizes postshow cleanup initiative for BTS's comeback performance

Published: 20 Mar. 2026, 10:15

Fans of boy band BTS take a photo in front of a promotional installation for the band's comeback concert in Gwanghwamun Square in front of Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Jongno District, central Seoul on March 19. [NEWS1]

Concert chaos? Not on ARMY’s watch. BTS fans are already organizing a postshow cleanup after the boy band’s Gwanghwamun Square performance on Saturday.

The BTS fandom, ARMY, famous for their good-will activities, has put together a mass cleanup event after the boy band’s much-anticipated comeback performance in central Seoul. It started from a fan posting on X that “about 10 people per section should clean up after the concert.”

More than 400 ARMY members from around the world have since signed up to participate in the cleanup, even including some without concert tickets.

“We plan to clean not only designated areas like standing and seating zones, but also sidewalks, roadsides and even streets under traffic control — essentially the entire area,” the fan who first posted the idea to X said. “ARMY members have always come together like waves during events like this. It feels like something natural to do.”

ARMY is already well known for carrying out campaigns and charitable activities in BTS’s name, while also promoting the band in highly organized and voluntary ways.

“It’s a level of influence never seen among fans of any other global pop star,” said Hong Seok-kyeong, a professor of communication at Seoul National University.

Messages and banners welcoming ARMY, boy band BTS's fans, are seen around Myeongdong in central Seoul on March 19. [NEWS1]

ARMY has led various campaigns over the years. Notable examples include the “BTS Forest” tree-planting project launched in 2016 and donations of refunded concert ticket costs to disaster relief organizations during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The fandom has also spoken out on political issues. In 2020, ARMY organized a donation-matching campaign alongside BTS in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Their fan activities are both highly voluntary and systematically organized.

An X account called “ARMY BADA,” created by three fans, regularly posts messages encouraging the streaming of BTS songs. The account, which has 21,100 followers as of Friday, offers one-on-one guidance to fans on how to increase streaming counts across multiple accounts. It is also developing an app that allows users to stream songs directly through embedded links.

An advertisement promoting BTS’s upcoming comeback concert is displayed on a building screen near Gwanghwamun Square in Jongno District, central Seoul, on March 19, two days ahead of the performance. [KIM JONG-HO]

Fans also organize bulk album purchases. In this system, a single fan gathers hundreds to tens of thousands of participants to place large collective orders timed to maximize chart impact.

Even during BTS’s hiatus while members fulfilled their military service, ARMY’s unity remained strong.

“BTS Festa,” an annual event hosted by BigHit Music to celebrate the anniversary of the boy band’s debut, continues to draw large crowds regardless of member participation. In June last year, about 60,000 fans attended despite the group’s inactivity.

“If traditional K-pop fandoms are defined by ‘preference’ and ‘following,’ ARMY’s relationship with BTS is closer to that of a ‘community,’” said Kim Jeong-seob, a professor of cultural industry and arts at Sungshin Women’s University. “This is a phenomenon also seen among other K-pop artists who debuted around the same time as BTS, but BTS has played a key role in globalizing Korean fan culture through its international fandom.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY CHOI HYE-RI [[email protected]]