$119 a pop<\/a> online \u2014 that turned different shades of blue, red, yellow, green, purple and white in sync with the stage.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/fac7a9b11494416a744e0b69d37c3ec4.jpeg\"\/)
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More fans than not had one of these sticks in hand, and they set the tone for the whole show. The sticks glowed bright red for the opening song, \u201cHooligan,\u201d then flashed turquoise and green for \u201cAliens.\u201d<\/p>\n
But even more impressive were the lights, pyrotechnics and screens on stage, which immersed fans in the elements.<\/p>\n
Undulating blue lines crisscrossed the stage during \u201cSwim,\u201d creating the illusion of water. The lights formed droplets that appeared to splash on the group.<\/p>\n
On screen, the filters became an essential part of the story. The boys were made blurry, flickering and overexposed. During a performance of \u201cFYA\u201d and \u201cFire,\u201d golden, gooey flames radiated off them as they danced.<\/p>\n
You know when the encore is wrapping up, and fans start filing out of the stadium in a desperate rush to bypass post-show traffic?<\/p>\n
That barely happened during this show. Most of the roughly 60,000 fans in attendance on Saturday stayed standing, cheering, through the final notes of \u201cInto the Sun.\u201d Their screams as BTS took the stage were so loud that I scrambled to put ear plugs in.<\/p>\n
We watched a 15-minute interlude spotlighting homemade signs fans had brought into the show.<\/p>\n
Some of my favorites:<\/p>\n
\u201cCelebrating my 54th birthday with BTS\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c4,701 days as Army\u201d (That equates to almost 13 years, close to when the group debuted in 2013).<\/p>\n
And finally, the young boy wearing a t-shirt reading, \u201cMy name is Jimin too!\u201d<\/p>\n
BTS fans are obsessed in part because the group has always gone to great lengths to shine love upon their fanbase.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not seven with you,\u201d they sing in \u201cWe are Bulletproof : The Eternal.\u201d<\/p>\n
That care for the fans was on display as each of the seven delivered a monologue on how happy they are to be in Tampa.<\/p>\n
As the members tell it, Jin, who came to Tampa as part of a solo tour in 2025, convinced the group that they should debut their North American tour here.<\/p>\n
Naturally, Jin got the biggest cheers of the night.<\/p>\n
I counted almost 50 background dancers on stage at one point during the show. They manned flamethrowers, twirled batons, heaved translucent sheets to create the appearance of waves, and sprinted across the stage during \u201cRun BTS.\u201d<\/p>\n
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During \u201cSwim,\u201d as the boys stood on an elevated center stage, the silhouettes of the background dancers appeared to be lifting them up \u2014 a fitting tribute to the unsung heroes of the night.<\/p>\n
BTS sings two surprise songs during each show on the Arirang tour.<\/p>\n
For fans of BTS\u2019 older music like myself, they\u2019re the most anticipated part of the night. But they\u2019re not a core part of the show, so the visuals are limited. The songs have not necessarily been extensively rehearsed.<\/p>\n
That being said, the surprise songs last night \u2014 \u201cPermission to Dance\u201d and \u201cMagic Shop\u201d \u2014 felt like group karaoke time. The background track blared while the members\u2019 live voices faded in and out.<\/p>\n
Maybe I\u2019m just disappointed we didn\u2019t get \u201cPied Piper.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saturday night was filled with firsts for BTS fans. The sold-out show at Raymond James Stadium marked the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[58778,108668,103363,108667,11708,135,137,136,108669],"class_list":{"0":"post-247490","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-bts","9":"tag-diehard-fans","10":"tag-north-american","11":"tag-north-american-tour","12":"tag-raymond-james-stadium","13":"tag-tampa","14":"tag-tampa-headlines","15":"tag-tampa-news","16":"tag-tonights-show"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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