Busan drops plan to draft 915 civil servants for BTS concert after backlash

Busan city scrapped a plan to compulsorily assign 915 civil servants to the BTS world tour concert on June 12–13, switching to a volunteer-based system after a public backlash.

The concert, BTS World Tour Arirang in Busan, is a ticketed private event organized by Big Hit Music under HYBE — not a city-hosted public event. Admission runs approximately 200,000 won. The city had originally planned to post workers around Sajik Sports Park for traffic control, crowd dispersal, and illegal street vendor enforcement on concert days.

On June 4, an anonymous post appeared on the workplace community app Blind. The title: "1,000 civil servants being drafted for BTS concert for free." An authenticated civil servant wrote: "Is it right to deploy 915 Busan city civil servants without using their own funds?" The same post called the city "HYBE's Busan branch personnel office."

The Busan Civil Servants Labor Union issued a statement demanding withdrawal of the mandatory deployment and held two emergency consultations with the city's administrative vice mayor. By June 8 afternoon, the city folded. It withdrew the forced deployment plan and opened a volunteer application window through June 9. Any remaining gaps in staffing are to be filled by union leaders. Final deployment numbers and assignments are set to be confirmed on June 10.

A city official said: "We withdrew the deployment plan after internal discussion. Our policy is to deploy personnel where necessary to ensure citizen safety even if the workforce is reduced."

The March BTS comeback concert at Gwanghwamun Plaza in Seoul offers useful context. That event was free admission and drew roughly 10,000 public-sector workers: 6,700 police officers, 2,600 Seoul city employees, 800 firefighters, 400 Seoul Metro staff, and 70 Ministry of Interior and Safety personnel. The Busan concert is paid. That gap is what made the 915-person draft feel unjustifiable to the workers being asked to show up.

Separately, a BTS THE CITY Arirang Busan Welcome Center opened at Busan Station's Eurasia Platform on June 5, offering services for domestic and international tourists visiting for the concert.