South Korean Artists Postpone New Releases Following the Itaewon Halloween Tragedy
Music shows, variety shows, album releases and comeback events have been postponed in the wake of the national mourning period
From top-left: BTS' Jin, Le Sserafim, (G)I-dle and Exo's Chen
A series of music, fashion and entertainment events have been postponed following Saturday’s devastating stampede in Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood.
On the night of October 29th, a large crowd gathered to celebrate Halloween in Seoul’s nightlife district of Itaewon quickly took the face of a fatal crowd crush, killing 154 and injuring 149 people according to Reuters. Most of the victims were in their twenties. In light of the tragedy, the South Korean government announced a national mourning period to be observed till November 5th.
To honor those who lost their lives, several K-pop acts have canceled or postponed promotional and release events. These include livestreams, fan events, appearances on TV shows, ancillary content such as dance practice videos, and more. Any content or event related to Halloween has been canceled entirely.
New music releases from EXO’s Chen, Craxy, Drippin, Xdinary Heroes, Gaho, Irris, Apink’s Jeong Eun-Ji, Treasure’s Choi Hyun Suk, Yoshi and Haruto and more have been postponed. Details of the new release schedule are yet to be announced.
Local broadcasting stations SBS, MBC and KBS canceled their weekly entertainment shows Inkigayo, Running Man, King of Mask Singer and National Singing Contest respectively.
Hybe– the label which houses BTS, Seventeen, Tomorrow X Together and more–has postponed its ‘Briefing With The Community’ annual event which is hosted to give the audience a look into the year thus far and the label’s plans for the future. Announced via a notice released on social media platforms, the briefing (which was scheduled to take place on November 4th at 10 AM KST) will be held at a later date. All further information will be released through a separate notice. BTS’ Jin—who recently made his solo debut with “The Astronaut”— has postponed promotional events such as a listening party on Stationhead and the release of the lyric video. Label mates TXT and Enhypen have also released postponement notices related to their content schedules.
SM Entertainment canceled its forthcoming Halloween party, SMTown Wonderland 2022, which was scheduled to take place yesterday. The event included a livestream wherein the audience would get to see several SM artists walk the red carpet in their costumes. All announcements and promotional materials of the event have been canceled since. Giselle— a member of SM Entertainment’s girl group Aespa—has also canceled a birthday celebratory Instagram livestream event.
YG Entertainment released a statement stating all “promotional schedule and content release dates” from their artists have been temporarily postponed. The label shall release a follow-up notice later, detailing the new dates.
Originally set to take place on October 30, the Busan One Asia Festival was canceled as well. The festival had acts such as Golden Child, Mamamoo, (G)I-DLE, Le Sserafim, AB6IX, Brave Girls, Pentagon and WEi on the bill.
A Gucci fashion show scheduled to host roughly 500 attendees at Gyeongbokgung Palace from within and outside the borders of South Korea has also been canceled. Meanwhile, Netflix has decided to postpone the release and press conference of their upcoming Korean drama The Fabulous starring SHINee’s Choi Minho.
Almost all actors, TV personalities and artists across various labels who had releases lined up for this week have made similar announcements and posted their condolences for the families of the victims.
