It’s been seven years since K-pop superstars BTS have been in Chicago. But the group’s fans have kept the fire burning during that time.
Earlier this month Gov. JB Pritzker declared Aug. 27 and 28 “BTS Day” in Illinois as a result of petitioning by Chicago BTS Army and the HANA Center, an immigrant advocacy nonprofit in Irving Park. And ahead of BTS’ return to Chicago this week, fans have been gathering to bond over their shared love of the K-pop titans, including a trivia night at Lincoln Park’s Replay on Tuesday.
Between the arcade games in Replay, the tables and bar are packed with buzzing BTS fans ahead of the South Korean superstars’ sold-out “Arirang” world tour shows Aug. 27-28 at Soldier Field.
The trivia night hosted by KPOP Merch by Choc Choc displayed the passion fans had for the band, as well as the community that the music welcomed them into. For each round, teams huddled over sheets filled with hyperspecific questions and obscure images of the members to identify in order to prove their knowledge of the band.
Many eventgoers were no stranger to local events hosted by fellow fans, and relished the friendships they were able to make through attending.
Daniella Thompson, 40, and Erum Ahmed, 40, of Bucktown, were playing as a team and had met a month earlier at BTS night at the House of Blues.
“That was our first time ever meeting, in line. I was like, ‘Are you going to this event tonight? And she was like, ‘Yeah.’ So this is our second time ever seeing each other,” Thompson said.
Megan Herrera, 25, of Pilsen, who had been a fan since 2016, started a craft club for BTS Army. She said she first became a fan in high school, when not many people knew of the band. But at Replay, she was playing trivia with a group of friends whom she met through their shared love for BTS.
“We all met through BTS. Some [friends] I met online, so that’s another reason that they mean a lot to me. Like when I met them, I didn’t know a lot of people, but by being a fan, I was able to connect with other people that I might never have met if I didn’t know [BTS], and those people became my best friends,” Herrera said.
BTS first came to Chicago in 2015 on the group’s first U.S. tour “Episode II: The Red Bullet.” While Herrera didn’t make it to that show, she went to the band’s “Love Yourself” tour in 2019, at United Center, as well as its stadium extension in 2019, at Soldier Field. She plans on going to both Chicago dates, as well as the L.A. dates, and she’s established a national network of Army through going to shows.
“I have friends in the East Coast that I met because of BTS, and I have friends in LA that I met. When I travel [to shows], it’s kind of a reunion,” Herrera said.
Many of BTS’ fans have grown up with the band, and for many, they anticipate hearing “Arirang” live because of how it calls back to the early days of BTS, as well as ’90s R&B from the States.
Ahmed said the new album reminded her of the group’s 2014 debut album “Dark & Wild.”
“Listening to ‘Arirang’ the first time was really exciting because you … could hear echoes of [‘Dark & Wild’] in ‘Arirang,’ but you can also hear how much they’ve grown over the years, and especially what they kind of explored during their solo careers as well,” said Ahmed.
Even newer fans felt similarly. A’riel Warren, 34, of Chicago’s West Side, became a fan in 2021 and enjoyed the nostalgic vibes of the track, “they don’t know ’bout us.”
“I like the tempo. It gives very … R&B ’90s Houston, like if you know, if you know,” Warren said.
Warren was introduced to BTS through her algorithm, and was introduced to the fandom community by her friend when they went to a BTS rave. Since then, she’s been supporting their solo work, but is excited to finally see them reunite. For fans who got introduced to BTS after the height of the pandemic, this will be the first time seeing the band in full.
“This would be my first time actually seeing them as a group,” Warren said.
BTS went on break four years ago as members fulfilled South Korean’s mandatory military service. Fans, like Samantha Gusman, 40, and Tyxie Vandoorn, 40, of Wrigleyville, remained steadfast in their support of bandmembers’ solo projects. This meant attending J-Hope’s headlining performance at Lollapalooza in 2022, his “Hope on the Stage” tour in 2025, as well as SUGA’s “Agust D” tour in 2023.
“We always know the military service is coming, so it was bittersweet. But the fact that they all did solo stuff, so that it never felt like we were without them for that whole time, was really awesome,” said Gusman.
As the night wound down at Replay, Army kept their enthusiasm high, oohing and aahing at the esoteric answers they had gotten wrong. At the podium calling out the results was Mollie Menuck, 25, manager at KPOP Merch by Choc Choc. It’s the third trivia event that the Lake View store has hosted.
Menuck said became a BTS fan in 2021 thanks to her friend, but she was always a boy band lover, citing groups like One Direction, 5SOS and Why Don’t We.
“My really good friend at the time was shoving K-pop down my throat, and I started watching the music videos. I realized how much of a unique industry it is that we don’t have here. Especially [since] One Direction’s inactive. We don’t really have any boy groups, so I feel like it really filled a void,” Menuck said. “[BTS] was my first group. I call them the gateway drug.”
Like many others, it’s Menuck’s first time seeing BTS, and she is going both nights. When asked how she managed to snatch seats given the notoriously difficult ticket-buying process, she once again credited her friend for being able to secure their spots.
“I always say K-pop is a team sport.”