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TAMPA, Fla. – From Funko Pops to trading exclusive photo cards and even dance breaks, K-pop fans are listening and building an impressive collection.
Local perspective:
Kasandra Lee and her daughter Jasmine Wade are more than just BTS fans in Tampa.Â
They are collectors hunting for the latest drop of K-pop merchandise.
“I mean, no other K-pop group globally has Barbies from Mattel. They have so much to offer their fans, and it’s fun. It really is fun,” said Jasmine Wade, the founder of Tampa Bay BTS ARMY, a local fan group.
Big picture view:
The collaborations from BTS include everything from McDonald’s meals to recipe books, so you can eat like your favorite member.Â
The real heart is in the fan-made merch, like freebies and cup sleeves, which are created for the community and by the community.
“[Fans] gather, and they go and promote a local boba shop or tea shop or café. You come. You get a drink, and then you get one of the cup sleeves,” said Lee. Cup sleeve and freebie exchanges happen during fan-organized meetups.
What they’re saying:
Other K-pop fans are still building their collections. Madison Harrison’s bookshelf is a map of BTS, from their debut era to each member’s solo chapter.
“I kind of just started, but eventually I do want to have just about all of their albums,” said Harrison, a 19-year-old resident of Spring Hill.
For Patricia Papageorge, the deep storytelling drew the 60-year-old Hudson local in, turning her from a listener to a super fan.
“This is the first thing I’ve got, Beyond the Story. It starts from the beginning. It’s the 10-year record of BTS,” said Papageorge of her collectible book that her daughter gifted her.
Dig deeper:
Some fans prefer to collect moves instead of merch. Camren Estrada Uy, 23, takes K-pop choreography off the screen and onto the stage around central Florida.
“I do gigs, and usually I’m like a fill-in member or something for multiple dance crews,” said Estrada Uy, a K-pop dancer.
Camren’s mother, Catherine Estrada Uy, who also has a dance background, likes to learn how to K-pop dances with her friends and shake off the work week.Â
K-pop dance choreography is famously complex – a visual story that the pros make look so effortless. But in the fan community, being perfect matters a lot less than the laughs along the way.
“Especially if we danced as a kid, we still have it in us. Maybe our bodies don’t move as well as we used to, but we still do it. If you have that passion, you can do it,” said Catherine. “It takes someone crazy to do what we do, and that’s what makes it fun.”
The Source: The information in this story came from multiple interviews with K-pop fans in the Bay Area, and it was gathered by FOX 13’s Briona Arradondo as part of her series “K-Pop: The Seoul Reach.”