The Pacific Wheel was lit in purple and featured an evening light program that displayed the BTS logo on Friday, November 26

K-pop superstars BTS, which stands for Bangtan Boys, have returned to Los Angeles following a concert hiatus caused by the world-wide pandemic. Their current show, Permission to Dance, features songs from their most recent album Butter as well as the single Permission to Dance which was released on July 9th. The shows in Los Angeles take place at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood November 27 & 28 and December 1 & 2.

In partnership with SoFi Stadium, LA Tourism arranged for a special lighting of the Pacific Wheel in Santa Monica’s Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier. The special light program ran on the evening of Friday, November 26th and featured artwork inspired by the bands most recent single and a 70ft wide “BTS”.

Fans of BTS from around the world, lovingly referred to as “Army”, celebrated the special salute after it went viral on @DiscoverLA social media channels. All 3 national TV networks in Korea (MBC, KBS and SBS) and the 2 largest news portals (Naver and Daum) featured the displays well as Korea’s tier-one newspapers (Donga, Hangyoreh, Chosun, Newsis, etc.), and many of Korea’s Naver bloggers.

The members of BTS, V, J-Hope, RM, Jin, Jimin, Jungkook, and Suga, visited Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier early in their career on a trip to Los Angeles to perform at the Grammys in 2019. BTS fans commented excitedly on social media in response to the special lighting events excited for their first offline concert in 2 years, saying the city feels festive and electric in welcoming the Army and BTS.