Shrishti Kalwar and Nehal Tambe (Mumbai, Maharashtra)

It is not an unknown fact that BTS has taken the world by storm and India exists in this world too. As a result of their great influence on the youth and their ability to spread the message of self-love and expression, BTS or Bangtan Sonyeondan has become a source of happiness to many. So the day they came into existence is no less than a day of celebration with joy in grandiosity. Throughout India at various locations, events and celebrations took place on the 13th of June 2022 to mark the 9 memorable years of BTS and their journey.

Among these, today we bring to you one such beautiful event that took place in Mumbai called “We are Bulletproof” led by a Hallyu based E-commerce platform in Mumbai, thehallyustore that is the blooming business idea of teen entrepreneurs Ms. Naaz & Ms. Navsheen Shaikh, aged 18 and 16 respectively, who started this business almost 2 years ago to bring a variety of Korean and Hallyu based products to the fans in India and are successfully growing faster.

Event Details

The event was mainly initiated, organized, and managed by thehallyustore. Associate partners were Mumbai.BTS, and Korean Culture India Fan Club, Hallyuism and Love Karnival were the media partners. The event was held in Juhu, Mumbai at the Emeralds Hotel Courtyard on 13th June 2022 from 3 pm to 7 pm. The unique highlight of the event that distinguished it from others was the “Indo-Korean flea” showcasing various small businesses from all over India, who share their love for BTS as well as other stores based in India showcasing different merch and products. You could find fan-made T-shirts, mugs, candles, jewellery, keychains, stationery as well as photo cards and postcards of BTS and some other K-pop groups as well. Hallyu based items such as Korean snacks could also be found.

Known BTS Army and influential Instagram face from Mumbai, Piyuchino aka Ms.Piyusha Patil was also invited as guests to grace the event. Fans not only from Mumbai but neighbouring, as well as far cities and states of India too, were seen showcasing their talent and having fun. The enthusiasm and love could be felt radiating all over the venue as Purple filled the hearts and the air. A whooping number of Armys showed up which turned the event into a great success.

When asked about how they came up with the reason and plan to do such a successful event, here is an excerpt from the organiser:

 Organiser Experience

thehallyustore

We came up with this event idea in the month of April, Starting with looking for venues, media partners, performers, and associates, preparing a guest list & making a marketing plan. Once we were done with all this stuff we started getting people on board and started dropping hints about our event on our platform. Our event registrations/ticket bookings have always been on a barcode system. Registrations/bookings of the tickets were done on our website (thehallyustore.com). and on booking the tickets there was a barcode which was received by the attendee, These barcodes are scanned on the event day & are marked as checked-in. Looking at the fact that Korean & Indian cultures getting along so well we came up with the idea of an Indo-Korean flea market & in total we had 27 pop-ups at our flea. 26 stores + 1 publishing house. We can’t thank enough Love Karnival & Hallyuism India for giving us such massive support all long through their media pages and also Mumbai.BTS for supporting us by being our associates.

Not forgetting our venue owners who were so supportive all the time understanding us and co-operating with patience. Our event was held at the banquets of the emeralds hotels & executive apartments Juhu. We received a footfall of 270+ people, this includes the audience, guests, performers, flea market people, content creators, influencers & reporters and other offline entries. during the preparation of events. We were always excited about looking for a suitable venue and designing required materials (ex. cup sleeves) getting freebies. We believe in the idea of supporting all small businesses and with this idea, we thought that we should get our freebies from a small business instead of big vendors, we did the same on our TXT MOA meet-up & we got the freebies from small businesses on Instagram for supporting them.

We arranged our BTS event freebies from the Indian Kpop stores and we must say, it was a very smooth process, co-operative like always! Our cup sleeves were designed by one of our owners (Navsheen). Our event started with jamming on music and looking up on Indo-Korean flea. Moving ahead we distributed the food, drinks, freebies, promo codes by various pop-ups & bookmarks by saga fiction. We distributed the Food in a box packaging. After the warm-up sessions, we started with our performances. With full of energy our first singing performance by Mayank, singing so amazingly, followed by the powerful dance performances by Chirag, Axiom, Friskles, Aishwariya & singing performances Ryuxin & Shristi.

After the performances Saga Fiction, started with their readings and must say it was very sweetly read. Moving forward, with That That I like that to random dance play/dance floor the event went on a wonderful ride. We concluded the event with the cake cutting ceremony & giveaways. Our cake cutting ceremony was done by Our Special guest Piyusha also known as Piyuchino, we were so happy and glad to see one of our favourite content creators as our special guest. We thank each and every person who attended the event and made it such a wonderful one. It wasn’t our first time organizing an event but the thrill and excitement was the same as the first time and this time.

Fans Experience

The event was amazing, Right from the flea market to all the performances and the arrangement, everything was perfect. Looking forward to more such events – Sweety Patel

I started listening to BTS songs last year. Since it was my first ever BTS event I was so excited, I got to meet lots of new people who had similar music tastes as mine along with that I bought a lot of stuff from free stores. It was fun banging our heads on “that that”, doing fanchant and vibing along with other Army’s. Basically “it was an exciting and joyful Monday which wasn’t boring unlike other Mondays😅”- Sadiya Shaikh 

The event was absolutely stunning I got everything I wanted as the merch prepared by ARMys were really fascinating and the dance performance were ultimate mood makers. – Shreya Mishra

First of all the choice of location and the deco was really mesmerising and aesthetic. The artists and audience were wholesome and the flea market had such a great vibe and variety that made me want to have my hands on everything. The food and its packaging were good too, and also the freebies that we got throughout the event. The event management was the best to arrange everything so systematically and in order to have the event end on a good note. Though I have a small complaint about the DJ due to which not the audience but the artists were in trouble as they had to stop their performances multiple times, also about the hotel management if there were bins to throw the empty boxes of food and bottles it would have been great in order to avoid the trash loitering the venue. Otherwise, it was an overall remarkable event to remember forever💜- Sanskriti Sabba

Overall Experience

On 13th June 2022, an event was organized for ARMYs to come together and celebrate the 9th debut anniversary of BTS. The event was held in The Emerald Hotel, Juhu, Mumbai. The ambience was packed with the stalls which sold K-pop/K-drama merchandise along with several different merch from Indian stores as well. What made these stalls special was many of them had handmade merchandise which included necklaces, keychains, stickers etc. These merchandise was not just beautiful but also pocket-friendly which attracted the audience towards them before and throughout the event. The event started with a warm welcome from thehallyustore and continued with various solo and group performances which included singing and dancing to various BTS hits, which made the audience groove.

In between performances, the refreshments were provided to keep up the energy along with the freebies. After all the performances ended, the performers and audience together took over the dance floor followed by the cake cutting ceremony to commemorate the reason for the event. A purple cake was cut by the guests and tiny cupcakes with purple frosting topped with tiny flags of BTS’s albums specially made for Armys were distributed. Last but not least were more than 10 giveaways, held by various stalls that participated in the flea market. The most highlighted giveaway was a 10 BTS official photocard giveaway organised by thehallyustore. The winners of these giveaways were chosen through random ticket numbers, names, quizzes, dance and other challenges.

The best part of this event was ARMYs who came alone and found new friends as well as for many it was their first BTS event. Meeting people who shared the same love not just for BTS but for their music too definitely must have been a happy moment.

As the reach of Kpop increases and more lives are touched and inspired by BTS, they and their Armys continue to grow to show the world a new revolution of love and unity. So it wouldn’t be wrong to say that we will surely be witnessing more such memorable events and “Proof” of people of different origins and stories, coming together and celebrating themselves and sharing their common love for their beloved Kpop groups, especially BTS.

On behalf of Hallyuism, we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks and gratitude to thehallyustore for inviting our team to attend and cover this event! We look forward to many more such events in the future!