BTS Gathers 260,000 Fans for Historic Gwanghwamun Concert: Safety Measures in Place

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[iNews24 reporter Kim Da-woon] Two days before BTS’s concert at Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Plaza, the group members urged fans to prioritize safety and thanked police and other government officials deployed to secure the event.

Authorities expect the largest crowd since the 2002 World Cup—about 260,000 people—so Seoul city officials, the police and the fire department are concentrating all efforts on safety ahead of the March 21 performance.

BTS leader RM wrote on the fan platform Weverse that he and the members are truly excited to see fans at Gwanghwamun.

He urged attendees to help keep the event safe and enjoyable, asking them to follow directions from on-site staff and security and to behave in an orderly way.

“I believe the order and consideration each ARMY member shows make the performance even more spectacular,” he added.

RM also expressed deep gratitude to the police, firefighters and all government and local officials working to ensure safety at the event.

Member Jin said he felt honored to greet fans again at such a meaningful site and thanked everyone who helped make the comeback show at Gwanghwamun possible.

He promised the group would give their best performance and asked those attending in person to pay close attention to safety.

Police expect about 260,000 people to gather from the stage area up to Sungnyemun, making this the biggest crowd since the 2002 World Cup street cheers, which drew 200,000–250,000 people.

Seoul plans to deploy roughly 8,200 personnel for safety management.

About 3,400 will come from the city, district and fire authorities, and about 4,800 from the event organizers. They will monitor crowd density and incidents in real time.

To guard against service disruptions from surging communications traffic, officials will distribute 98 PS-LTE disaster-network terminals to the site and to related agencies so response capacity remains intact in an emergency.

The Fire and Disaster Headquarters will deploy its largest-ever firefighting force for the event: 102 fire trucks and 803 personnel. Through a pre-activation of the national fire mobilization order, 20 additional ambulances from other regions will be stationed near the venue.

Seven nearby fire chiefs will remain on duty and maintain a response force ready to deploy 38 vehicles and 138 personnel immediately.

Officials divided the venue into three zones and assigned chief-level officers to oversee each area. They organized rescue-and-EMS support teams, rapid-response teams and on-site liaisons to strengthen command and control.

Police to verify IDs for suspicious behavior

Officials also set up an emergency medical system. They will operate three on-site clinics—at the Sejong the Great statue, the Yi Sun-sin statue and the Seoul Urban Architecture Exhibition Hall—daily from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. HYBE will separately operate 11 medical booths.

Police will mark a “crowd-control line” outside the area where people can view the BTS stage and allow about 100,000 people inside that perimeter.

Anyone inside the crowd-control line who wants to watch the show must pass through walk-through metal detectors (MDs) and undergo checks for dangerous items.

Police plan to use roughly 300 handheld scanners to inspect the belongings of suspicious people outside the crowd-control line, including potential weapons. People without ID may be asked to provide their resident registration number (the national ID number) and fingerprints for verification.

Jongno-gu also conducted large-scale safety inspections of construction sites, street fixtures, roads and sidewalks across the district ahead of the concert.