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With SEVENTEEN's Ode To You North America tour wrapping up in Seattle, it felt like the perfect moment to celebrate one of the most special parts of any K-pop concert: the fan projects. Across fandoms, fans plan banners, freebies, and meet-ups to give every show a little extra magic. None of it happens by accident.
The Seattle stop on January 23, 2020 closed out an eight-city North American run, and ahead of the show I reached out to several CARATs who organize, create, and hand out fan-made merch before the doors open. SVTCaratsUSA, LightersFlame, and Raniillustrates each gave fans heading into ShoWare Center something physical to remember the night by. Here is how their projects came together.
SVTCaratsUSA: Building a U.S. CARAT Community
SVTCaratsUSA (@SVTCaratsUSA) is run by a group of volunteers who united around a shared love for SEVENTEEN and a frustration that the U.S. did not have an official fan club. They draw on experience from overseas projects, then translate those traditions for fans in the United States who cannot always travel internationally.
Since 2017, the team has put together fan banner projects for KCON three times, fan projects for several stops on the North America tour, and four official stadium banner events. Their focus is on creating meaningful memories between fans and artists. Pulling off something this big requires shared goals, clear communication, and steady relationship-building. Projects can take months to plan and only an hour to distribute, so they ask fans to respect organizers and venue staff alike so future projects can keep happening.
LightersFlame: Pins for the Tour, Crafted by a College Art Student
LightersFlame (@lightersflame_pins) is the work of a college art student who designs and hands out original pins and prints. For Seattle, the lineup included pins made specifically for the Ode To You tour. The drive behind these creations is simple: there is not much USA-specific merch for tours like this, so a fan-made pin becomes a real keepsake.
Set-up usually starts hours before the concert. LightersFlame packs everything tightly so distribution stays quick, easy, and discreet in line. Even with the prep work, the best part is meeting people and helping fellow CARATs leave the venue with something meaningful in their pocket. The advice: look for smaller, less-known creators when buying tour merch. They are straightforward about pricing and they want to make things fans will treasure. Share their work and credit them so smaller artists can keep reaching new audiences.
Raniillustrates: Space Needle Freebies for Seattle CARATs
After handing out freebies at a GOT7 concert and KCON 2019, Raniillustrates (@raniillustrates) decided to take on SEVENTEEN's Seattle stop. The drop included freebies, keychains, and photocards, with the Space Needle worked into the designs as a love letter to the city. The goal was to capture the unity inside the K-pop fandom and create something CARATs would keep for years.
Freebies like these double as icebreakers, helping shy fans connect with the people standing next to them in line. Raniillustrates also makes physical photo-ticket designs that can stand in for the increasingly common electronic version. Creating quality content takes serious time and money, so the balance is finding the sweet spot between effort and giveaway scale, all while keeping the artwork worthy of the fandom it represents. Above all, the joy is mutual: the project makes fans happy, and that makes the creator happy too.
Why CARATBongs and Fan Projects Matter to SEVENTEEN Fans
Fan projects line up neatly with SEVENTEEN's whole vibe as a group. The 13 members of SEVENTEEN, S.Coups, Jeonghan, Joshua, Jun, Hoshi, Wonwoo, Woozi, The8, Mingyu, DK, Seungkwan, Vernon, and Dino, are famously hands-on with their music and choreography, splitting into hip-hop, performance, and vocal units. CARATs mirror that energy by being just as hands-on with how they show up to a show, from the official CARATBong lightstick waving in unison to banners coordinated row by row.
How to Support Fan Project Organizers
Fan projects are not something to take lightly, and the volume of people offering and organizing these events deserves real credit. The CARAT projects above are only a small slice of what is happening across the K-pop world on any given tour weekend.
If you head to a K-pop show, keep an eye out for organizers handing out one-of-a-kind items and share what you receive on social media with proper credit. That kind of visibility is what helps smaller content creators grow and unlocks more freebie projects at future concerts, fan meets, and pop-ups.
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