BTS will make its Gillette Stadium debut Wednesday, drawing tens of thousands of fans from around the country and marking the first K-pop show ever held at the arena.
“I am buzzing,” said fan Aija Rizza, who was waiting for an Uber to the stadium near South Station Wednesday morning. “I think this might be the best day of my life, if I’m being honest.”
The MBTA offered a special event train from South Station to Foxboro at 5:25 p.m., but many fans opted to take the regularly scheduled commuter rail to get to the stadium earlier.
“I had to do some research because I don’t really know how to use the MBTA,” said Wazu Lebron, who traveled in from Maine for the concert. “But you just got to get an app and it’s pretty much straightforward from there.”
Getting the concert tickets wasn’t so easy, though.
“Oh, that was war,” said Carol Choup, who was boarding the train with her sister, Cara. “My screen was frozen, but she was able to get the tickets for us.”
Channath Sok also had trouble getting tickets — so much that she flew to Boston from Iowa after trying and failing to get seats at concerts closer to home.
“We checked Chicago, Arlington [Texas] was sold out completely, so we’re like, 'You know what, we’re just going to try the East Coast first.’ And then we got tickets for both nights,” Sok said.
Sok traveled from the Midwest with her friend Elle Afjari, who said she’s been trying to get tickets to BTS shows since 2019.
“We’ve been trying to get tickets for a very long time and this is the first time we’ve been able to go, so I’m very excited to just be there,” Afjari said.
Rizza and her friend also bought tickets for both nights at Gillette, paying about $140 each for seats in the 300 section at Wednesday’s show and $500 for each seat on Thursday.
“We had a budget, and it was below our budget,” Rizza said. “It’s a little crazy still, but you know, better than what we were expecting.”
Lebron paid $700 for her ticket in the 100 section at Wednesday’s performance, but said she would have paid more to get to the front row. That’s because, for Lebron, the concert will be an opportunity for connection.
“I’m looking forward to the sense of community. That is something that I’ve been looking for because being a BTS fan was pretty rough growing up,” Lebron said. “A lot of kids would bully me for liking them.”
But as groups like BTS have grown in popularity, Lebron said she feels more comfortable expressing her fandom.
“I definitely feel like it’s easier now to be a fan” said Lebron. “There’s so much K-pop fans now and there’s so much groups that have reached America, thanks to BTS.”
