Behind the scenes for BTS
It took days of preparation to set up for the K-pop superstars’ Hamilton shows
THIS WEEKEND, seven Korean superstars will sing and dance in downtown Hamilton in front of thousands of enthralled fans.
But behind the scenes, it took hundreds of staff, thousands of hours of preparation, and millions of dollars to get them there.
BTS — an enormously popular K-pop boy band from South Korea — performed the first of three shows Thursday night at the First Ontario Centre (formerly Copps Coliseum). Hamilton is the only Canadian stop on BTS’s world tour, which also includes shows in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, London, Berlin, Paris and Tokyo.
For staff at the First Ontario Centre, the BTS show is one of the most technologically complex, expensive productions to come to Hamilton — so expensive that it’s impossible to put a price tag on the production.
“You’re in the millions of millions in terms of production costs, just to get this up and running,” said Matthew McDowall, director of operations for Spectra venue management, adding that that figure doesn’t include travel, staff, labour, and merchandise.
“This is really a big show for us, and a big show for Canada.”
It took a crew of 101 stagehands three days to set up for the show, said Rachel Down, event manager at the FirstOntario Centre — the fastest setup time so far on BTS’s “Love Yourself ” world tour. The crew used four 135-foot articulating booms to rig the extensive lighting needed for the show.
BTS also travels with its own specialized stage — a large, central platform with a walkway to a smaller, secondary stage — along with a massive “video board” that Down describes as a key element of their performance. Fans were able to purchase $75 light sticks for the show, which will change colour during the show depending on their location in the arena.
“The style is quite unique in terms of using lighting and video boards,” Down said.
The FirstOntario Centre may be an older venue, but what it lacks in modernity it makes up for in flexibility, said Down. While the arena itself can accommodate the band’s unique setup, the venue is also large enough to house the BTS entourage, which includes 21 production trucks, 150 people from the Korean production team and 75 additional travelling crew members.
That’s not including the 90 local front-of-house staff who will direct fans during the three soldout concerts, as well as the 102 security staff will be on hand to ensure their safety.
But what’s happening inside the arena isn’t the only element of BTS’s stop in Hamilton. Spectra staff were expecting 10,000 people at the BTS “Fan Village” on the roof of Jackson Square, where concertgoers could line up for merchandise, pose for photos in front of a BTS backdrop, and get a free photo alongside a hologram of the members of the band.
“There are so many different elements. There’s a lot of moving parts, not only inside the area, but outside as well,” said McDowall.
As for the band members themselves, very little is being made public about their whereabouts or movements in Hamilton. Due to the Beatles-like hysteria they inspire, Down says Spectra staff are not at liberty to share any information about their schedule, meals or location.
“They’re very private, so a lot of that is under wraps,” she said. “We don’t know too much about them.”