For Cindy and Ashley Cruz, deciding which events and activations to attend outside of the BTS concert at Allegiant Stadium has been a weeks-long endeavor.
The mother-daughter duo sells art and trinkets at local markets through their business, Cruz Co-op, and will be set up at several of them this weekend to celebrate the Korean band’s return to the valley.
While they typically sell just enough to break even, this weekend could be a windfall — for them and more than two dozen other Las Vegas businesses.
“I think a lot of the vendors are getting ready, especially locally, because people are coming in, they’re setting up all of their events … and I feel like, if you’re a fan that has never, one, been to Vegas, two, have never been to a big BTS event, I think Vegas is a great destination,” Cindy Cruz. “I love when the hotels get into it too, because then they’re catering to the fans that they know they’re here. I think that that’s kind of neat to be able to have those types of experiences when you’re traveling.”
South Korean pop group BTS debuted in June 2013 and have since risen to fame on a global scale, nabbing GRAMMY nominations and dominating the charts with their latest album, ARIRANG.
The seven-member band first performed four sold-out shows at Allegiant Stadium in April 2022, becoming the first K-pop group to do so, and turning the city purple during the “Borahaegas” campaign launched by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA).
After a four-year break to complete mandatory military service in South Korea, the band is at Allegiant Stadium for four sold-out shows. They play today, Wednesday and Thursday.
Nearly 50 resorts, attractions and entertainment venues across Las Vegas are welcoming BTS and ARMY — their devoted fandom — back to the city.
Following each of the band’s four performances, BTS will take over marquees from 11 p.m. to midnight with curated content. Iconic landmarks, including the Luxor’s pyramid beam and the High Roller, are set to glow red in honor of ARIRANG. Fans can also look forward to a HYBE pop-up shop at Caesars Palace, a special fireworks show atop the MGM Grand on May 23, and parties at venues like Marquee and JEWEL Nightclubs.
Off the Strip, local businesses are getting in on the excitement. Gäbi Coffee and Bakery, Hobak Korean BBQ, French-Korean bakery Tous les Jours and Cafe Lola have all crafted special ARIRANG-themed menus, while fans gather at local bars and boba spots for community-organized events.
“Las Vegas has a unique ability to turn fandom into a shared citywide experience,” Kate Wik, chief marketing officer for Visit Las Vegas, said in a statement. “When tens of thousands of fans come together for a moment like BTS, the energy doesn’t stop at the stadium doors. Across the resort corridor, the landmarks, the experiences and the unexpected moments, Las Vegas creates a sense of connection and celebration that simply can’t be replicated anywhere else.”
Between the Electric Daisy Carnival festival earlier this month, the BTS concerts and Memorial Day weekend, May will provide a much-need boost to local tourism, said Marta Soligo, a professor at UNLV’s William F. Harrah College of Hospitality. Las Vegas visitation fell 7.5% in 2025 to roughly 38.5 million people — its lowest since 2021
The rise in large-scale music events being hosted in Las Vegas – including past performances from artists like Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift and Korean girl group TWICE – are attracting a new kind of crowd, one that might prefer fan experiences, photo pop-ups and curated food over gambling.
They’re spreading their spending across the city, from shows on the Strip to dinners at local restaurants and injecting financial support throughout the region – not just in tourism hotspots.
She added that these shows are also drawing more Gen Z visitors, people born between 1997 and 2012 who have historically been regarded as a tough crowd to pull because they tend to dislike gambling.
But only time will tell how much economic impact BTS and other big artists who
“In the past, you see people were going to go gamble, and then on the side they had this amazing opportunity to see these artists, (but) now some people travel to Vegas with that as the main motivation,” Soligo said. “The role of sports and celebrity culture is part of the DNA in Vegas, like think of Elvis, but … We are in the middle of a global crisis; we are in the middle of a geopolitical crisis, and who knows if two days of BTS, or four days can really change things. I’m afraid it’s becoming a more structural problem that you can have these peaks, but then the big challenge right now is how to keep that going.”