BTS Festa 2024: Jin To Hug 1,000 ARMYs In First In-Person Fan Meeting After Military Service

Lucky ARMYs -- BTS fans -- will have the chance of a lifetime to hug Kim Seok-jin on BTS' 11th anniversary.

Included in the 2024 FESTA's schedule is the first official appearance of BTS' Jin after fulfilling his 18-month mandatory military service in South Korea. Per BigHit Music's Weverse announcement last Saturday, the eldest member of the seven-member K-Pop group will hold an in-person event to celebrate with fans.

"This event was prepared in order to fulfill Jin's wish to spend meaningful time with ARMY in person on BTS' debut day," the announcement read.

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The in-person event will take place in Jamsil Arena in Jamsil Sports Complex, Songpa-gu, Seoul. The first session called "Jin's Greetings" will start at 3 p.m. KST and is expected to last about three hours.

In this meet-and-greet event with Jin, lucky fans will get to share a light hug with the "Awake" artist. Those who do not wish for a hug can replace the interaction with a handshake.

To win a chance to be part of "Jin's Greetings," Weverse first announced that 1,000 participants will be selected via a raffle from Sunday to Thursday.

"Customers who hold an ARMY membership AND purchase one or more official albums of BTS (including solo albums) released after ["Proof"] on weverse shop GLOBAL can enter the raffle," per the announcement.

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However, BigHit Music shortly released a notice of change in the application criteria for the in-person fan meeting with Jin after receiving backlash from fans, claiming that HYBE was "trying to make as much money off of [Jin]."

In the new announcement released Sunday, the company wrote, "We would like to inform you that the application criteria for the '2024 FESTA' Jin offline event will be changed."

"After the announcement of the application for the offline event at 11 am (KST) today, we will supplement the application criteria by considering both the album buyers who applied for the offline event and those who have purchased the album at the Weverse shop before the announcement. We will consider it thoroughly and announce the details as soon as possible."

Aside from a meet and greet, Jin will hold a second session called "Message from Jin" at 8 p.m. where he will "showcase various performances that ARMY wish to see."

It will be streamed live on Weverse exclusively for ARMY membership holders.

BTS is a seven-member South Korean boy group that made its debut on June 13, 2013. Every year, the group celebrates its debut anniversary with a string of events for the fans and calls the celebration "Festa."

This year, only Jin can spend time with their fans because the other six members of the group -- RM, J-Hope, Suga, Jimin, V and Jungkook -- are still fulfilling their mandatory military service.

Jin is the first one to be discharged from service after enlisting in December 2022. He will be released from his mandatory military service on June 12.