Celebrating Important Dates: A Complete Guide To K-pop Idol Support Events

K-pop has been gaining surging popularity around the world in recent years. As the K-pop fandom becomes increasingly more prominent, this has led to the creation of "support events," in which idol fan clubs organize various activities to celebrate their idol's birthday, debut, comeback, and debut anniversary. These activities all together form an essential and unique part of K-pop culture.

Surrounded by many universities, such as Yonsei University, Hongik University, and Sogang University, Hongdae and Sinchon have long been the "popular culture districts" in Seoul where young people always hang out. Therefore, many fan clubs put advertisements in Hongdae and Sinchon subway stations and bus stops for their idols to celebrate their birthdays or other important occasions. Fans sometimes even write messages on paper and stick them on the advertisement. If you pass by these two places' subway and bus stations, you can always find K-pop fans waiting for the advertisements to appear on the LED screens and excitedly taking photos with them.

ZEROBASEONE leader Sung Hanbin’s birthday advertisement at Hongdae subway station

Advertisements at Sinchon subway station celebrating NCT127’s 7th anniversary.

Photo zone of ATEEZ San’s birthday cafe event

Received many fan-made merchandises when ordering drinks and cookies at SEVENTEEN Wonwoo’s birthday cafe.

My friends and I caught ZEROBASEONE Seok Matthew’s older sister at his birthday cafe

Hongdae and Sangsu are also popular places for fan clubs to set up exhibitions for their idols. They transform the exhibition venue into an aesthetic gallery filled with their beloved idols' photos, making it a space for fans to look back on the growth of their idols and share the joy of their birthday with other fans. Many exhibitions include a message wall that allows fans to leave messages for their idols. Imagine how touched the idols would be when they see the wall full of heartwarming words from their fans! While some exhibitions are free, others require fans to purchase food or flowers to enter.

San’s photo exhibition at Hongdae.

Taking life four cuts photos with friends is a trend among the MZ generation in Korea. Walking along the streets in Seoul, you can always spot Photoshop every few steps. In response to the popularity of life four Cut, many fan clubs design beautiful life four cut frames of their idols and upload them to photoshops, usually in Hongdae or Sangsu. Some frames would include the idol's photos, while others have the idol's respective animal characters and even expressions that the idols always say. Fans can take lovely life four cuts photos with unique frames to record this precious moment between fans and their idols.

Seok Matthew’s birthday photo frame event

"K-pop in public" has become a global phenomenon in the K-pop fandom in recent years, where fans would make dance covers of K-pop songs in public areas. Therefore, some fan clubs would organize flash mob events to celebrate a particular idol group's anniversary. For example, last month, many BTS fan clubs worldwide held flash mob events to perform dance covers of BTS songs to celebrate the group's 10th anniversary. They then upload the video of the flash mob to YouTube to share their incredible performances with ARMYs from different places.

BTSforia, a BTS fan club among the CIS countries, held flashmob events in 15 CIS cities performing dance covers of BTS’s songs.

In short, as K-pop fandom has become more extensive and organized over the years, many K-pop fan clubs have organized different support events for their idols. Not only do these activities allow fans to show their love to their beloved idols and promote them to the public, but they also serve as pleasant occasions for fans to gather and connect and share their love toward their idols with one another. Have you participated in any of these K-pop Idol Support Events, and which activity do you find the most interesting? Please share with us your experiences and thoughts in the comment!

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