I’ve seen lots of discourse (once again!!!) due to kpop coachella performances, specifically the (very tired) idea that kpop artists have no artistry / performance abilities and are just there to look pretty.
It always exhausts me, because I want to scream “but have you seen ____?!”
So I’d like to make a thread dedicated to sharing the festival performances that showcase just how amazing kpop is and can be.
To me, a good festival performance can be made up by these things:
1. fully live vocals (not trying to add to the discourse around this, but it’s just a fact – it’s necessary. It’s also perfectly okay if the live vocals are shaky at some points – festivals are meant to be RAW!)
2. a live band (necessity)
3. a smart setlist – you are having to make the most of a small frame of time, and keep a crowd that could easily walk to another stage engaged.
4. crowd play – can you interact with the crowd & give them a unique and unforgettable experience in under 50 minutes? (this is what I feel kpop artists are most lacking in)
Based on this bit of criteria, my personal favorite group to watch at a festival is Seventeen.
Which – is kind of shocking, considering the sheer size of their group, as well as a discography that is more on the “refreshing” side, as opposed to being full of hard hitting songs. (They’ve got a few of course, like Hot or Super.) I remember being nervous when I heard they were performing festivals – extremely curious of how it would go over in that setting. And then I was blown away three times in a row.
Seventeen was the first kpop group invited to play Glastonbury – a festival where people buy tickets months before the lineup was released. A festival full of british lads who have been attending for years. It’s no exaggeration to say that they were lucky if 50 carats were in that crowd.
It was a smaller crowd due to this – but it was amazing to see more and more people come to the stage throughout their performance as their curiosity got piqued. If you haven’t watched any part of it, I encourage you to watch this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf-W8trD7U8
It’s truly incredible. They hit everything – but their bread and butter is crowd interaction. This is something I often find missing from kpop festival sets that I wish there was more of. Often times the performance is so perfectly polished, with rehearsed ments, and I want more groups to let loose and just let themselves BE in the performance.
Watching Seventeen convert a crowd full of non-fans into Aju Nice maniacs is truly so fun to watch.
Their hour and a half long set at Lolla Berlin is perhaps one of my favorite performances of theirs – ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anUvD2jRIkw&t=1112s
Really worth a watch if you’ve never checked out a Seventeen performance. For this one, I think they nailed the setlist – the flow is perfect, and kept the crowd super engaged the entire time. The live band, vocals, and my favorite part – the adlibs.
The way they hype up the crowd during songs like God of Music?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7Wy5Tf4JZk
To round out their festival shows, their most recent was in Mexico – t’ecate pal norte. Which I never saw anyone post in the general subs about (carats are so bad at staying in their own subreddit lol) but the CROWD at this one blew me away.
https://youtube.com/shorts/q8vKcJnd4gA?si=r0wDsXrF7TBh8XJL
And this is the silliest video ever, but this clip of DK is also what makes Seventeen so special on stage:
https://www.instagram.com/share/BATVKSeOMe
They just don’t take themselves too seriously. It’s fun, it’s energetic, it’s in sync with the energy of the crowd.
Anyways, I would love to learn more about YOUR favorite festival performances! I know J Hope absolutely KILLS it at festivals as well, so I’m sure someone will share clips and their own analysis of him! I know Ateez and Enhypen did the Coachella stage proud as well, though I haven’t done a deep dive into their full performances!
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