Big Bang's 20th anniversary celebration to take over Han River

Big Bang's 20th anniversary will come to the Han River on Wednesday night as a listening party, drone show and fireworks at Yeouido Hangang Park, part of Seoul's push to turn its riverfront into a bigger draw for K-pop tourists.

Coupang Play and YG Entertainment will present “Big Bang 20th Anniversary X Hangang Collaboration” from 8 p.m. around Mulbit Stage in Yeongdeungpo District, western Seoul.

The program pairs a DJ set reworking the group's hits with a video and media art tracing its 20-year career, and closes with a large drone show and fireworks. The event comes ahead of Big Bang's concerts at Goyang Sports Complex in Gyeonggi from Friday to Sunday.

Admission is free, and the city says anyone visiting the river can watch. Seoul will install large light-emitting diode screens on a boat near the stage and on the riverside lawn so people can follow the program from around the park. Seating at the stage itself was ticketed, with booking limited to Coupang Wow members, subscribers to the retailer's paid membership program, through the Coupang Play app from July 28 at two tickets per account and a booking fee paid by the user.

Coupang Play will also carry the event live for fans who cannot reach the park.

Seoul has been increasingly opening up the Han River as a stage for major K-pop events.

Boy band Seventeen marked its 10th anniversary with a concert on Jamsu Bridge at Banpo Hangang Park in southern Seoul in May 2025, while “BTS Lovesong Lounge” and “Spotify X BTS” ran at Yeouido Hangang Park in March this year. BTS also hosted “BTS Festa,” celebrating the band's 10-year anniversary in 2023, in Han River Parks and across Seoul. 

Promotion up and down the river

For Big Bang's night, the city has taken the promotion up and down the river, from screens at Ttukseom to the bridge fountain at Banpo. Teaser videos are playing on the large screen in the Hangang Panorama Zone at Hangang Play Place in Ttukseom Hangang Park, and on outdoor screens at five Hangang Bus terminals in Yeouido, Mangwon, Apgujeong, Jamsil and Ttukseom, through Tuesday. The Moonlight Rainbow Fountain at Banpo Hangang Park, recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's longest bridge fountain, has been running an 8:30 p.m. show set to Big Bang songs since Thursday and continues through Wednesday.

Seoul said the event is part of a broader effort to use K-pop to draw overseas visitors to the Han River and encourage nighttime spending in nearby restaurants and shops.

“Through performances by world-class K-pop artists, we will develop the Han River into the center of global K-pop culture and a leading cultural and tourism destination for visitors from home and abroad,” a city official said.

The nighttime economy

Mayor Oh Se-hoon set out the thinking behind that approach at a senior officials' meeting on July 15.

“The nighttime economy is a new growth strategy for Seoul,” Oh said. “It connects culture and tourism, commercial districts and transportation into a single ecosystem that can change residents' leisure culture and increase consumption and vitality across the city.”

The city expects large crowds Wednesday and will temporarily close Mulbit Square. It will also suspend the Hangang Night+Camping program, also known as Bamping, at Yeouido Hangang Park for the event. The temporary campsite normally operates on the lawn in front of Mulbit Stage throughout August.

“World-class K-pop content meeting the beautiful natural and waterfront spaces of the Han River will give visitors from home and abroad a special experience,” Park Jin-young, head of the city's Future Hangang Headquarters, said.

“Seoul will keep developing the Han River into an appealing K-culture destination that people around the world want to visit, and a space that represents Seoul as a global city of culture and tourism.”

BY MOON HEE-CHUL [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]