BTS FESTA: 9 Years Together and the Best is Yet to Come

The 9th anniversary of BTS’ debut holds so much meaning; they have been on their journey with ARMY for almost a decade and we have gone through so many moments and emotions together.

The seven members have shared their youth with the world and have grown into talented artists, achieving things they couldn’t have even dreamt of 9 years ago. This FESTA gave us the opportunity to go back in time and see who BTS was, so that we can better understand who BTS is now.

Family Portrait and Photo Collections

2022 FESTA began with the tradition of family portraits, starting with family portrait #1. BTS recreated their usual formation of four sitting in the front and three standing in the back. They were in all black and white, wearing suits and showing off their charm. The pictures varied from having serious looks to smiles and laughs. They also took unit photos with RM, Jin, and Jimin being one unit and j-hope, SUGA, V, and Jungkook being the other.

Family portrait #2 and portrait #3 showed BTS in colorful clothes that represented the different eras of their career. They also had unit and pair photos.

There was also a selfie collection, and BTS shared a collection of pictures together in special moments throughout 2021 and 2022.

Dancing Through Memory Lane

As another gift to ARMY for this celebration, BANGTANTV released never-before-seen videos of BTS’ various dance practices over the years. It all started with the practice recording of We are Bulletproof Part 2 plus No More Dream and ended with their practice of Butter for their Grammy performance. Every single video is worth the watch, as we are able to go through the journey and evolution of their dance and performance.

My You, A Song for ARMY and Sharing Love

The tradition of getting a special song as ARMY for FESTA was also fulfilled. This year, Jungkook sang, produced, and wrote the song My You. The basic premise of the song is Jungkook sharing his feelings towards ARMY, and how thankful he is to share his journey with us. He said that at times, he gets emotional thinking about ARMY and wanted to convey that in a song in which we could all find comfort.

BTS spent part of their anniversary with some lucky ARMY at a pre-recording for Mnet MCountdown. Since it was a special date, they accommodated the venue in order to allow more ARMYs to attend and watch.

There was also the release of “Proof Live” in which they performed Born Singer, Yet To Come (The Most Beautiful Moment), and For Youth. The live performance and conversation were filmed in the Las Vegas desert, and they had American rapper Anderson .Paak join them as a special performance guest.

Bangtan also went on multiple social platforms to send a message of happiness and gratitude toward ARMY. Later that night, V came on VLive saying since many of us couldn’t see them that day, he would turn on the live to spend time with ARMY.

Bangtan Dinner

BANGTANTV released “The Real Bangtan Team Dinner” as a closing to this year’s FESTA celebration. The video began with BTS enjoying food and telling stories about their life together. They had many fond memories and shared new things with us, like the different tastes in home decor each member has, and the various fights they would have.

Although Bangtan reminisced about fun times, they also shared an important conversation with ARMY. This discussion had been weighing on their minds for many years now. Plainly speaking, they confessed they were exhausted and in admitting that, they felt an immense amount of guilt.

BTS has reached new heights every time they set out in the world with their music and message, but as individuals, they have held themselves back. Feeling uneasy as individuals ended up causing a form of identity crisis as BTS, and for this reason, they decided to take a break from working exclusively as a group and focus more on themselves. This pause is for resting, as well as working on individual projects, but they will continue some group projects.

ARMY is proud that Bangtan talked about a heavy burden they were carrying for so long. BTS deserves to turn their lives and careers into anything they want, as they have worked hard as a group and comforted ARMYs all around the world for many years.

BTS really wanted us all to know that they will come back together better than ever and wanted to make sure we knew how much they cherish us. RM said that ARMY was BTS’ essence and as ARMY, we feel that BTS is one of the greatest sources of love in our lives. You can’t have ARMY without BTS.

We wish BTS and ARMY to be well and we look forward to the journey yet to come while we all stay connected through our purple thread.

Written by: Lizette

Edited by: Marcie

Designed by: Komu

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