ATEEZ started their world tour ‘THE FELLOWSHIP: BREAK THE WALL,’ starting with performances at Jamsil Indoor Gymnasium in Songpa-gu, Seoul, for two days from October 29 to 30. Girl group Dream Catcher also held their '2022 DREAMCATCHER' Apocalypse: Broken Halloween' world tour from October 29 to 30.
In the midst of the Itaewon tragedy, the two groups decided to hold the concert after a discussion. As the government declared a period of national mourning after large-scale casualties occurred, most of the events and concerts scheduled for October 30 were canceled.
As any K-pop fan knows, offline concerts require billions of KRW (millions of dollars) in production costs and many staff members. If everything is set up and the show is canceled a few hours before the show, a huge amount of budget and time is wasted. What's more, small and medium-sized companies are more severely affected. Because of this, there are artists who have decided not to cancel their concerts during the mourning period.
Additionally, ATEEZ and Dream Catcher are K-pop groups with a stronger overseas fan base than in Korea. Most of the seats for their respective concerts were filled with fans from overseas. Therefore, there will be more criticism directed toward the agency from these overseas fans who do not know the details of the situation in Korea if the concerts are canceled just a few hours before.
In the end, the two teams had a scheduled performance for the same reason. However, considering the social atmosphere, ATEEZ canceled the press conference for reporters and took time to commemorate the Itaewon disaster before and after the performance. Dreamcatcher also paid tribute to the deceased by delivering a message of condolences during the performance.
Nevertheless, there have been voices criticizing that the two groups didn't cancel their concerts during such a period of mourning, and fans are coming to their defense.
Netizens commented, "Yeah, we should leave the medium-sized and small-sized companies alone unless you're going to pay for their expenses," "Their livelihood depends on this so how can they cancel the show," "How can they cancel a show that started on October 29," "The cost is so high how can they cancel the show?" and "Please leave these mid-sized companies alone."
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I’m not fan of both groups. But definitely they don’t deserves any hates for keep their show going. A live concert need huge financial non-refundable commitment, not every company And Artists can afford the loss. Nobody ever know that the tragedy would happens, unfortunately certain show must go on. I’ve seen both group fandoms been reminding each other’s on Twitter to not leak - post - stream any photos / videos of the concert or trending concert related post on social media to respecting the mourning period, I think that’s pretty much sensible. Best of luck to both.