Like many other artists have done lately, BTS recently canceled some upcoming Asian tour dates due to concerns about the spread of the coronavirus. The cancellations were announced a few days ago, and as fans who bought tickets have been getting their refunds, a lot of them have been charitable with their returned money. As BuzzFeed News notes, the K-pop group’s followers have so far donated about 400 million won (over $330,000) to coronavirus relief efforts.
The Korea Herald reports that fans have made over 9,000 individual donations to the Korea Disaster Relief Association under names like “Bulletproof Boy Scouts,” “BTS,” and “ARMY.” These fan donations follow donations from BTS member Suga, who gave 100 milion won (over $83,000) to support his hometown of Daegu, which has been severely affected by the virus.
An official from the Korea Disaster Relief Association notes that the total donated from BTS fans is probably higher than the reported number, telling The Korea Herald, “The actual amount is likely much higher than the official count. Donations made under individual members’ names without any mention of BTS were not counted in the statistics because it’s difficult for us to figure out whether the names are attributed to BTS members or the donors’ real names.”
The groups’ fans were so enthusiastic about donating that they crashed the charity’s website, as the official said, “Our website went down for about 10 minutes amid a flurry of donations Friday. We feel grateful about their donations and believe their contribution will bring a positive ripple effect across the globe.”
BTS aren’t the last group to cancel shows in Asia for precautionary reasons, as The National just announced this morning that they had called off a pair of Japan shows originally scheduled for later this month.
