It’s a really funny story about how I ended up at the BTS Permission to Dance Tour in Las Vegas this past weekend. First, I was never into BTS. I’ve definitely heard of them and knew they were super popular but never got into the whole K-Pop scene. Then the pandemic happened and I literally had nothing to do except watch TV and YouTube. Funny enough, I still didn’t get into BTS then. I actually got really into BLACKPINK! I went down a serious rabbit hole and became an instant fan. Fast forward to the fall of 2021, I was hanging out with some friends and one of them showed me my first BTS music video, Mic Drop.
From that one music video, I was instantly obsessed. I’ve heard other more popular songs of theirs like Dynamite and Butter, but I still wasn’t sold until that one fateful night my friend decided to put BTS on. I watch the whole music video and was so impressed that they knew how to dance. I mean REALLY dance. They are all so good! From that moment on, I started YouTubing all their music and watched a bunch of their shows. A month later, I found out that they were going to do a 4-night show in Los Angeles! I looked up tickets just to entertain the idea and prices were CRAZY. I mean I’m a full-grown adult with a full-time job and the nosebleeds were like $400-$500 apiece!
Needless to say, I didn’t go, but I did have a little bit of regret in my heart since BTS was here in my own hometown. So, when I found out that BTS was going to be back in the U.S. and were going to be performing in Las Vegas, I knew I had to go this time. I checked ticket prices and they were way more affordable than L.A. I convinced my best friend to go and for us to make a 24-hour turnaround road trip from L.A. to Vegas. Of course, this was my first time going to a show of theirs so I didn’t really know what to expect or how to prepare. I know a lot of you might be in the same place so I wanted to make this blog post so you can have the best experience too!
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How Much Were BTS Las Vegas Tickets?
We bought BTS Permission to Dance verified resale tickets through Ticketmaster since we didn’t make it in time for the presale. We sat in Section 339 Row 12 and paid $180 per seat. After taxes and fees, it came out to be about to be around $426 total for two tickets. The cheapest seats I found were in the 400 section and ran about $100/seat before taxes and fees. I felt very lucky since there were other seats around my area that were starting around $300-$350 before taxes and fees.
What Should I Wear to the BTS Permission to Dance Show?
A lot of people dressed up in clothes from their favorite music video. It was really fun seeing everyone really get into the concert. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to prepare but decided to buy this cute multi-colored sequin bomber jacket off Amazon last minute. I wanted something sparkly and fun for the concert and could not have been happier. I was getting compliments on it all night! I loved it so much I’m probably going to wear it to Coachella in a couple of weekends.
For the rest of the outfit, I wore a regular plain white t-shirt, pleather shorts, and my YSL high tops. I was thinking about wearing black jeans just because it might be cold in the stadium, but I was totally fine. The biggest thing I cannot stress is that if you bring a bag/purse, it needs to be clear. If you don’t have a clear bag/purse or it’s too big, they make you store it away in a locker somewhere. I only know this because this happened to another friend of mine.
How to Get to the BTS Permission to Dance on Stage Show at Allegiant Stadium?
If you haven’t prepaid for parking, there are two ways that I recommend you get to the show.
- Lyft/Uber: Even though we drove from LA, we didn’t want to drive to the concert. We decided to schedule a Lyft around 2:30 p.m. to pick us up at 6:00 p.m. from the MGM Grand. I highly recommend scheduling a Lyft/Uber, because it guarantees that you have a ride exactly at the time you want. The prices were super reasonable too. It only cost us $9 before the tip.
- Walk: I say if you are staying at the Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, or Delano, you can easily just walk to the venue. There’s a monorail that connects the Excalibur-Luxor-Mandalay Bay so it makes it super convenient to walk. Also, on big event days/nights, they close down Hacienda Blvd. and turn it into a pedestrian-only bridge. We were thinking about walking it from MGM Grand too, but it was too hot outside and at least in a Lyft, there’s an air conditioner.
Are There Openers for the BTS Permission to Dance Show?
There are no openers for BTS! It’s only BTS.
What Time Does BTS Come On?
The show is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. and it does. There’s a video intro that comes on so you do have a couple of minutes, but BTS is literally on stage by 7:35 p.m.
How Long is the BTS Permission to Dance on Stage Show?
The show starts promptly at 7:30 p.m. and ends around 10:00 p.m. So, about 2.5 hours total.
BTS Merchandise
If you were following my stories on Instagram, you would have seen how hard I failed at this. We tried to get to the venue early so we didn’t have to deal with buying merchandise later at the show. The merchandise booths in the parking lot open at 9:00 a.m. and we got there around 11:30 a.m. There was a crazy amount of people already at the stadium. Since we were driving from L.A., we were hoping that we could just park somewhere really fast to buy some merchandise and be on our way. Unfortunately, nothing is ever this easy.
How to Buy BTS Merchandise
- First, if you are planning on driving there, you have to pay for parking even if you are just trying to buy merchandise. They will send you to the farthest off-site lot where a bus takes you to the stadium every 20 minutes. We didn’t really have time for this so we decided to just deal with the merchandise at the concert.
- Second, if you have a parking pass, you can park at your designated lot but there are no ins-and-outs. So, if you’re coming to buy merchandise around noon and you decide to park, you’re going to be stuck at the stadium all day.
- Third, you can buy items on the Weverse Shop phone app (Apple or Google) and then pick them up at the MGM Grand hotel. We tried to do this too, but all the items we wanted were sold out. If you are planning on doing this, you also have to be within a 2.5 km radius of the stadium for you to be able to purchase/checkout. I think this is weird since, at that point, you might as well just go to the stadium, right?
- Fourth, you can always Uber/Lyft there. If you are staying on the strip, this is what I recommend you do. I would take the earliest ride you can get to the stadium as soon as possible. That way you have the first pick of what you want. Also, if you do this strategy, the Ubers/Lyfts drop you off pretty close to the stadium so you don’t have to walk far from the parking lot or have to take a bus.
Best Time To Buy BTS Merchandise
If you want to pre-purchase your merchandise before the show, I highly recommend you get to the stadium at 9:00 a.m. when all the parking lot merchandise booths open. If you don’t have time to do that, definitely get to the show when the actual venue opens which was at 4:30 p.m. for us. There are merchandise booths inside the venue so you want to be one of the first people in there.
If you don’t want to do any of that and don’t care about getting a particular item, I would go right after the opening song. A lot of people left the line because everyone wanted to catch the opening song so the line shrank real fast. This is kind of what we did. I left to go see the opening and my friend stayed in line since she isn’t a die-hard BTS fan. By the time I came back, she was already at the front talking to the booth employees about sizes. Unfortunately, all the Smalls and Mediums were already gone! But in the back of my mind, I already knew that this was going to happen so I wasn’t too surprised.
What Size Should I Buy?
As mentioned above, all the Smalls and Mediums were sold out before the show even started (7:30 p.m.). Also, almost everything was sold out so we only had a few options left. I was already preparing myself to leave with nothing, but my friend bought an XL hoodie and I decided to try hers on just to get an idea. Surprisingly, the XL hoodie wasn’t too bad in terms of size. Don’t get me wrong, it definitely was baggy but I wasn’t drowning in it either. So, we decided to stand back in line to see if they had any Larges. We had to go to three different merchandise booths before we found one that had a Large and I’m pretty sure I bought the last one. This was probably now around 8:15 p.m. to just give you an idea of the timing.
Obviously, if you’ve seen my pictures, I’m a petite person. I’ve 5′-2″ and I weigh about 108 pounds. I didn’t try my Large hoodie until I got back to LA but I would say it’s not bad at all! It’s definitely on the loose side but the sleeves aren’t too long and the hoodie is loose enough to go around my waste. The hoodie ends right below my bottom. So, if you are like me and run into the same situation, I would say that you won’t be disappointed with a Large if that’s the smallest size they have left. A Medium probably would have been perfect and a Small would have probably been too small especially if you take into account shrinkage over time.
What Time Should We Get to the BTS Permission to Dance on Stage Show?
It really depends if you want to buy BTS Permission to Dance merchandise or not. If you do want to buy stuff, definitely get there early enough because merchandise lines are long and a lot of things sell out. If you don’t care about the merchandise, I think leaving the strip around 6:00 p.m. is perfect. Our Lyft picked us up from MGM Grand around 6:10 p.m. and we got to the venue around 6:45 p.m. That gave us enough time to walk to the stadium, take some pictures, and get food/drinks.
What is the BTS Permission to Dance on Stage Show Las Vegas Set List?
Day 1 and Day 2 (of Weekend One) had mostly a similar setlist, but with a few minor song changes. I went on Day 2, but I’ll post both setlists here so you can see the difference. Also, credit to this website for providing this information.
| BTS Las Vegas Day 1 (Fri, April 8th) – 22 Songs | BTS Las Vegas Day 2 (Sat, April 9th) – 21 Songs |
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Where Can I See Pictures from the Show?
I made a whole separate post with all of my BTS Las Vegas concert pictures since this post is getting too long. You can find it here!
Was it Worth Going to the BTS Permission to Dance on Stage Show in Las Vegas?
I can’t even tell you how much it was worth it! My friend isn’t even a BTS fan she had a great time. I don’t even speak Korean and I loved every song that they performed. I think they spent a lot of the production value and made sure that regardless of what language you speak, you are going to have a memorable experience. If you are on the fence about going to the show, I think you should pull the plug and just go. I also think I had a better time at the BTS Las Vegas show rather than if I would have gone to the L.A. show. Las Vegas really pulled all the stops for BTS and you can just feel the ARMY energy!
