Throwback Thursday Special - BTS Festa: Rewind

Image source: Bangtan Official

By

 Ethan Horton, Shufei Chen & Abbie Barnes


Every year on June 13th BTS celebrate the anniversary of their debut; the band do lots of amusing and fun celebrations while discussing their achievements during the year and their hopes and wishes for the future. All of this includes special photo shoots, song covers and even special choreography dance videos; the main purpose of the Festa being a huge celebration and thank you for the fans. However the Festa is not just a one day celebration; starting approximately a week or two leading up to the anniversary, BTS releases content over each day, building up an anticipation within the fandom.

Over the years the Festa has become bigger and grander in scale, including the developments they have made such as their recently introduced opening ceremonies; something clearly made for Army’s, as well as their traditional radio show on Kkul FM which they do. With there being improvements each year it is something that we would like to cover as we believe it is crucial behind their identity as a group and their growth as performers.

To start off, we thought it would be nice to see the development of BTS’ Festa’s, from 2018 rewinding back to their debut. The following video shows us their Festa’s through the years:



Credit to Emily Knight for creating the amazing Festa Rewind Video!

How have BTS matured, how this affected the Festa, how they have managed to implement this into the Festa, and how they have produced their songs and the differences within them:

The schedule for their first Festa in 2014 included the following:
      0602 - BTS Festa Guide
      0603 - BTS 1st anniversary photo album #1, 2013
      0603 - Special BTS Magazine <Bang. Talk.>
      0604 - BTS 1st anniversary photo album #2, growth
      0604 - <Bang. Talk.> Prologue '365 Days' 00:00
      0605 - Special Choreography Stage #1 어른아이
      0605 - <Bang. Talk.> 1st 'BTS Lounge'
      0606 - Special Choreography Stage #2 Beautiful
      0607 - <Bang. Talk.> 2nd 'Keyword Talk'
      0608 <Bang. Talk.> Appendix '. . BTS' 00:00
      0609 - My BTS Profile Written By Me (BTS Ver.)
      0610 - Radio teaser #hookgayo
      0610 - <Bang. Talk.> 3rd 'One Year Ago Today'
      0611 - 1st anniversary commemorative photo
      0612 - Birthday Chef Jin (BTS live tweeting Jin making the birthday meal)
      0613 - BHC Radio <BTS Kkul FM 06.13
      0613 - <Bang. Talk.> Last 'To A.R.M.Y' 21:00 

Meanwhile the latest Festa in 2018 had a schedule that included:


During the first Festa we can see that it includes a lot of talks and discussions, and the main focal point being the photo albums, and Choreography and special dances created for the fans to enjoy, on already pre-existing BTS songs produced during that year. They also had a special meal made by Jin for the actual members.

This is compared to the latest Festa which is a lot more developed with the main difference being that they now had the opening ceremony of the Festa and was one of the most fan enjoyed parts. There was also the release of a lot more photos with different themes; there was a lot more fan enjoyment through this as it was a lot longer with a many more activities included for fans to enjoy. They also included an interlude ceremony, had a dinner party which is a clear advancement with all of this being filmed and accessible for fans to watch. The focus of these activities being towards showing their audience how they have matured and changed during the years. 

Differences and developments:
As BTS have grown in age and matured there have been a lot of jokes, especially with Jungkook, who was joked about due to his age as he started under the age of 18 and about how he got his provisional and recently about drinking alcohol.
They have become a lot more mature with the jokes they have made and speak more about their recent experiences and their fans, rather than the first few anniversaries where they would focus on each other and experiences that brought them together. They have become a lot more reflective of their experiences as a band and what they have done and achieved.
The development of their Festa has also been evolving year on year. For their first Festa in 2014, they held a ‘radio show’ called KKUL FM, which was released on their YouTube Channel, BANGTANTV, on 12 June 2014. KKUL FM was first established during their first Christmas as a group and due to its success, they decided to feature it as part of Festa. KKUL FM is also known as Honey FM (translated from Korean to English). They start off by blowing out a candle on a cake, which celebrates their 1st anniversary, with Suga as the host. During this radio show, they played games, talked about their wishes for the future and many other things. Every year since their first Festa, they held KKUL FM. During the show, they would reflect on everything that they had done in the previous year and like their first Festa talked about similar topics and played games. Blowing the candle on a cake was also a Festa tradition.

In 2017, they added an event called ‘Home Party’ which consisted of BTS holding a mini ‘concert’; performing unit stages, playing games etc. The fact that they went from only holding a small radio talk show to a mini concert shows us the growth of BTS through that short period of time.
In 2018 BTS developed even more; this year their Festa had changed slightly. They didn’t have KKUL FM, but instead had a show called The House. ARMYs got to watch Bangtan enjoy food and drink alcohol, and talk about what had happened in their lives over the past year. This year instead of ‘Home Party’, BTS had ‘Prom Party’ and this event was similar to ‘Home Party’ where there were unit stages and games played.
Through the growth of their Festa events to changes in traditions it is clear to us that BTS have grown a lot; they have a much bigger fandom and are much more popular now allowing them to be able to adapt and interact more with ARMYs on special occasions like these.

Festa photo album:

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018
Images source: Bangtan Official

Similarities in their Festa’s

BTS have always given us the things that we ARMY want before they celebrate their big day. These range from videos of dances to new songs and remixes to photo shoots with the most brilliant themes. One thing that always seems to surprise me is the amount of content that they produce in the time that they have is remarkable and how did we deserve someone as amazing as them.

They have given us schedules (see below) for the Festa so we know what to expect which is absolutely great and so thoughtful of them to give something like that to us. The examples that I have given are all uploaded to their fancafé where K-ARMY’s are thoughtful enough to share with I-ARMY’s who are unable to see it; plus other amazing ARMY’s translate for it all into various languages so everyone can understand.

It is very evident that BTS think that this schedule is something they can stick to during the Festa’s and they are planning to continue it as it works very well. Along with the Festa’s they have a radio station they go and talk on which gives them another way to interact with ARMY. The radio station is called KKUL FM. On this they talk about things such as:
  • ·         The achievements they have earned that year
  • ·         Thanking their managers and staff for all of their hard work and effort
  • ·         Playing games with each other
  • ·         Dancing around and playing their music
  • ·         Giving us ARMY updates 


BTS FESTA Schedules Through the Years
(click on the links to view the content)
BTS introducing their 1st Festa

2014 BTS Festa - Schedule
·0602 - BTS Festa Guide | Youtube
·0603 - BTS 1st anniversary photo album #1, 2013 | Facebook + Imgur
·0603 - Special BTS Magazine <Bang. Talk.> | Fancafe
·0604 - BTS 1st anniversary photo album #2, growth | Facebook + Imgur
·0604 - <Bang. Talk.> Prologue '365 Days' 00:00 | Fancafe
·0605 - Special Choreography Stage #1 어른아이 | YouTube
·0605 - <Bang. Talk.> 1st 'BTS Lounge' | Fancafe
·0606 - Special Choreography Stage #2 Beautiful | YouTube
·0607 - <Bang. Talk.> 2nd 'Keyword Talk' | Fancafe
·0608 <Bang. Talk.> Appendix '지. 못. 미 BTS' 00:00 | Fancafe
·0609 - My BTS Profile Written By Me (BTS Ver.) | Facebook + Imgur + Translations
·0610 - Radio teaser #hookgayo | YouTube
·0610 - <Bang. Talk.> 3rd 'One Year Ago Today' | Fancafe
·0611 - 1st anniversary commemorative photo | Facebook + Imgur
·0612 - Birthday Chef Jin (BTS livetweeting Jin making the birthday meal) | Twitter
·0613 - BHC Radio <BTS Kkul FM 06.13> | YouTube
·0613 - <Bang. Talk.> Last 'To A.R.M.Y' 21:00 | Fancafe




Songs released and performed during Festa:
2014:
·         BTS Special Choreography #1 and #2:





2015:
·         V and J-Hope- Hug Me

·         BTS - I need u (roles changed)


·         BTS - Special choreography 1 & 2




·         BTS- We are Bulletproof Pt.1

2016:
·         Jungkook & RM - So that i love you (I Know)

·         Jungkook - Nothing like Us

·         BTS - Young Forever (Unplugged Version)

2017:
·         BTS (Jimin, jk) - We don't talk anymore




2018:
·         BTS - Spring Day (Brit Rock Remix)


·         RM, SUGA J-Hope - DDAENG

BTS have worked so hard for all ARMYs and to get where they are is today amazing and we wish we could give it all back to them but as hard as ARMY do work, BTS always finds a way to work harder for us and we fully appreciate that.

Thank you BTS!!

FIGHTING!

We thank you for joining us through this journey of the Festa's, and hope that you have enjoyed it. Join us again next time for more Throwback Thursday.

You can watch additional videos on the links below.

Meanwhile if you have anything you'd like to add or have any ideas why not contact us. Leave a comment below or alternatively we can be found on:

Twitter: @BTSRadioUK

Facebook: BTS Radio UK

YouTube: BTS Radio UK

Or you can email us at btsradiouk@gmail.com


Follow and subscribe to keep up to date with new content.


References:

YouTube Videos:

KKUL FM:

PARTIES:
·         2017 Home Party: https://youtu.be/Cd56ICt9yvA
·         2018 Prom Party: https://youtu.be/QEAQUqASZAA

Websites:

Credit to Emily Knight for creating the amazing Festa Rewind Video!



Comments

Popular Posts