A.R.M.Y Meetup: Birmingham.
The Final Installment Of The UK A.R.M.Y Meetups.
On the 5th August, the last installment of the ARMY meetups began. For our Twitter leader Kerenza, this meant braving new street station at 11am. This isn’t something she would normally attempt on a Sunday but she decided to try. Why? Because it was an ARMY meetup of course! For editor Gabbii, it meant a 40 minute journey to the same station at 10am. Despite the masses of butterflies in their stomachs, they survived, and lived to tell the tale.
Kerenza: After hearing about the success of the Manchester and London meet ups, I decided to see for myself how good they really were. I didn’t know anyone when I first arrived at Millennium Point and was definitely nervous about being around so many new people. However, I soon found a member of our BTS Radio UK team. We were both made to feel welcome by everyone and quickly made friends with other ARMYs.
Gabbii: That’s right, I too was really skeptical about this meet-up, as I only knew a few ARMYs in the West Midlands, but after having my arm twisted by a friend of mine I caved in and decided to go. This was perhaps the best last-minute decision I have ever made. Like Kerenza said, we went in knowing nobody, we hadn't even met ourselves and only worked over the internet before this point, but Kerenza was the first ARMY I met that day, and we were honestly so over the moon with how welcoming everyone was.
Once we were all sat down in the park, we were split into seven groups and began introducing ourselves to our team, beginning with how we discovered BTS. Some people told us that they had travelled quite far to come to the meet up which was a surprise. Some ARMYs had even travelled all the way from Plymouth, Cheltenham, Lincolnshire, and South Wales for this event! During this time to discuss our biases, we took the opportunity to ask our team some questions, and when doing this we learned that some ARMYs in attendance were as young as eleven and were following BTS for about two or three years, whereas others had been there from the beginning, whilst some had only learned about BTS’ success following their most recent comeback.
With introductions done, the games began. A range of activities had been planned for the day including a quiz and a game of Charades-related Bingo. Every team was given the chance to choose a name which we would have to shout out when answering a question, and we were the notorious team Ding Dong. For the Charades game, each team filled out a grid with anything BTS related and a designated member from each team would then have to stand up and act out the word. Once one of the other six teams had guessed the right answer you were able to cross it off your grid. This was the moment where we could see how competitive everyone was becoming as the game was getting more and more heated when the teams were getting closer to the full-house, but during this time we noticed how the ARMYs differ their relations with BTS, as some would act out memes from Bangtan Bombs and Run! Episodes, where as others would dance out iconic choruses to some of the groups’ songs.
Following the games portion of the meet-up, we stopped for a break and were treated to 100 beautiful Samosas made by the Smethwick-based restaurant Golu Da Dhaba, which were kindly given to us by local ARMY, Ani. These, alongside the delicious ice cream from the parlour next door to the greenery, made the hot afternoon continue triumphantly. This break was then followed by a dance competition that was extended for over an hour, with BTS’ most well-known songs, along with other songs by Momoland and Ikon. This was the perfect time for dancers of all abilities to get involved and have fun and show their skills.
Although not everyone wanted to get involved with the actual dancing, all were happy to watch and proudly shout the fan chants from the sides. Some of the dancers that showcased their moves during this time included fans Dee and Ian, who were bouncing through every song and creating a buzz with their techniques. Self taught dancer Dee definitely caught our attention with her energetic personality. She definitely wasn’t afraid to show she had skills and even helped to give Kerenza some tips when she asked. It's also not surprising that Ian ended up circling around the internet after boldly showing that he learnt the whole choreography not just for ‘Blood, Sweat & Tears’, but also ‘DNA’, ‘I Need You’ and ‘Fake Love’.
During the day, we spoke to ARMYs that had travelled from not just Birmingham, two fans Catherine and May, who originated from Korea and are currently staying in Cheltenham. When asked what they thought of the event, Catherine told us how she was “blown away by the support that Birmingham had for BTS, but also for K-Pop in general”, and as she handed out small gifts of photocards and coffee, she told us how she “hadn’t expected” such a turn out.
We caught up with twins Chloe and Jade, who had travelled cross-county with their friends just to attend the event. With the majority of them being fans of BTS for the past two to three years, we could see how dedicated they were when we asked them to summarise what BTS meant to them. The terms “Kings” and “Legends” occurred regularly during this time, and upon asking what they would tell BTS if they ever had the chance to meet them, the first thing that was mentioned was simply; “Thank You”.
Birmingham-based ARMYs Kion and Ian only discovered BTS in the last three years, both due to the music videos of 'Save Me' and 'Dope'. When asked what they thought of the group, Ian simply responded with “BTS is Love, BTS is Life”, which caused hysteria as many fans agreed with him. We gave them the opportunity to express their thoughts towards BTS by asking what they would say to the group if they were to ever get the opportunity, to which Ian responded with; “사랑해”.
Local fans Loren, Jess, and Jasmine discovered BTS in the last three years also, and spoke to us about how BTS had helped them learn to love themselves. College student Jasmine went to the extent of creating a replica of the iconic flower hat that Hoseok wore in a previous V-Live, and in response to this question, Jasmine stated how she “wouldn’t be wearing this flower hat if not!” Which perfectly summarised the effect that BTS had for not just her, but many fans in attendance.
As the dance competition drew to a close, we finished the day with a treasure hunt, a raffle, and group photos of all fans with their group biases, as well as a photo of all ARMYs in attendance, along side the distribution of multiple photocards. Over 70 ARMYs travelled to Birmingham for a wonderful five hours, and returned home speaking highly of the event, as did we following our very emotional departure; if you get a chance in the future, we highly recommend that you attend at least one meetup. They are definitely worth it for the people that you meet!
A big thank-you to those who took time to answer questions in relation to the creation of this post. With many attending the BTS concerts in October, we hope you all made some lifelong friends, just as much as we did.
Our final thank-you goes to you, the person reading this post, we hope that we inspired you to attend a meetup in the future, even if you are shy or alone, you don’t need to worry as many are in the same position as you, and we even heard one fan call the Birmingham meetup a “family reunion”.
Credit to:
Dee - @dreamocholic on Instagram
Jasmine - @WTHobi
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