When you’re a fan of kpop, there is one highly coveted concert-going essential: the lightstick. Each kpop group has their own design but they all light up and can often be linked to your concert ticket via an app so they will change colours during the concert. BTS’ lightstick is called an ARMY bomb and at first glance it actually looks quite similar to a solar garden stake light.

Since I found my love for BTS last year, I’ve known about ARMY bombs and as a baby ARMY it almost seemed like you weren’t really ARMY unless you had one. Now, lightsticks (as well as most kpop merchandise) are not cheap. Depending on where you buy yours from – at the concert, kpop websites, official merch stores, etc. – an ARMY bomb can cost over £100! I didn’t really think getting one was necessary at first, mostly because I was just getting into BTS and thought that the likelihood of seeing them live in concert was pretty slim.

Fast forward ten months: BTS has announced their Las Vegas tour dates only two months ahead of time and I’ve secured flights, a hotel, and soundcheck tickets. Once I got the tickets I knew I couldn’t show up to the concert without an ARMY bomb in my hand. At every BTS concert there is an important event involving the fans called the ARMY bomb wave. If you’ve ever been to a sporting event, you’ve probably witnessed the ripple across the stadium as people raise their hands one after another. The ARMY bomb wave is the same, except with ARMY bombs!

Alex and I bought ours from two different retailers, hoping that at least one of them would deliver the lightstick to us before our trip to America. Now, I was planning on buying mine from Cokodive, a reputable merch site that I’ve bought albums from previously, but the ARMY bombs were completely out of stock. I ended up finding another site and ordering from them while Alex ordered his off of Amazon. Three weeks go by and then finally a package arrives! It turns out that Alex’s order came first. He kindly let me have his just incase my order doesn’t make it in time.

I’m so excited for the concert! It’s only three weeks until we fly to Vegas and I’m starting to get a little nervous! This whole trip only materialised three weeks ago and it’s only now starting to really sink in that we’ll be traveling. It’s a big step for us post-2020 and mid-pandemic. Fortunately we are both double vaccinated and boosted, plus we have multiple KN95 masks and fabric masks, as well as sufficient supply of hand sanitiser. At this point I’m less worried about catching COVID than I am about doing the traveling itself. And now that I’ve got my ARMY bomb, I’m pretty much all set to go!