BTS Fans Celebrate K-Pop Supergroup’s 12th Anniversary with Global Festivities

BTS fans, known as ARMY, gathered worldwide to celebrate the K-pop supergroup’s 12th anniversary since their 2013 debut with 2 Cool 4 Skool. In Seoul, 50,000 fans filled Olympic Park’s Jamsil Stadium, dancing under purple balloons to Dynamite and Butter projected on giant screens.

Lagos’s Eko Atlantic hosted Nigerian ARMY, who swayed to Boy With Luv on a beachfront stage, their glow sticks lighting the Atlantic breeze. Virtual concerts on Weverse streamed to millions, with fans in New York’s Times Square crowding billboards flashing BTS’s Proof anthology.

The celebrations honored BTS’s journey from a small Seoul studio to global icons, with members RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook currently in military service, set to conclude by December 2025. Seoul’s “Festa” featured fan art exhibits along Han River, depicting BTS’s Love Yourself era, while Lagos’s ARMY donated ₦10 million to orphanages, mirroring BTS’s UNICEF campaigns.

A pre-recorded message from RM, filmed in a Daegu studio, promised a 2026 comeback album, sparking cheers in Jakarta and São Paulo. Nigeria’s K-pop scene, vibrant in Abuja’s Wuse clubs, showcased choreography battles, with fans in BTS hoodies performing Mic Drop. The global events, uniting diverse cultures, cemented BTS’s legacy, as ARMY awaited their idols’ return.