On December 10, Los Angeles ushered in a new music festival, Los Angeles Capital of Culture, otherwise known as LA3C. The weekend event celebrated LA’s creativity and rich culture. Held at Los Angeles State Historic Park, they showcased diverse art installations, food, and musical vendors. Along with Lil Baby and Snoop Dog, the K-Pop group SEVENTEEN also headlined the event. 

SEVENTEEN started their LA3C experience on a high note by receiving the Culture Ambassador Award alongside HYBE Chairman Bang Si-Hyuk. The award was in recognition of bridging culture between the United States and Asia. In their acceptance speech, SEVENTEEN added, “we experience firsthand the feeling of togetherness that music enables us to feel beyond all barriers of language and culture. We are thrilled to be able to play our part as the sense of connection deepens and expands across the world.” The crowd’s excitement leading up to SEVENTEEN’s performance was so strong—it was almost tangible. The in-house DJ played popular K-Pop songs to keep the audience hype, such as “ANTIFRAGILE” and “Mic Drop.” This caused the audience to break out in the popular dances and yell the lyrics in unison.

Not too long after the impromptu dance party, the lights cut out, and booming intro music announced SEVENTEEN’s arrival. They kicked off their performance with their hit single “HOT” and delivered a high-energy and high-temperature performance. Afterward, they introduced themselves with their signature introduction, “Say the name. SEVENTEEN.” Joshua, the lead vocalist, already had high hopes for the crowd as he said, “the energy today is crazy,” and promised to show festival goers who SEVENTEEN is. Hoshi, the main dancer and performance team leader, then led Carats, their fans, in a call and response of “ho ho ho,” causing the other members to break into laughter before Dino took over, using their song “Clap” to chant with the crowd. 

The group had an hour-long set, featuring group performances of: “Rock with you, _WORLD, and Left & Right” as well as subunit stages, smaller groups of the members, performing: “2 MINUS 1,” “HIGHLIGHT,” and “GAM3 BO1.” A highlight of the night was when Hoshi - the leader of the performance team, S. Coups - the leader of the hip-hop team, and Woozi - the leader of the vocal team, performed their viral track “CHEERS” with the audience enthusiastically joining in for the popular lyric “엉덩이 팡팡 (my butt, bam-bam).”

The group took a short break to talk to the audience, saying how they’re always excited to visit and perform in LA. They then closed out their set with a chilled-out, holiday version of “Darl+ing” and their 2016 hit and fan favorite “VERY NICE.”  The members would pretend to leave the stage only to come running back for another chorus. They did this about six times until they apologetically said the airplane was waiting for them, but they did promise to be back very soon. The crowd continued chanting for them until the lights came back on, resulting in a large groan from the audience as this signaled that they had indeed left for real that time. 

As Carats were exiting the festival grounds, many expressed how proud they were and wished for SEVENTEEN to stay healthy and return to LA soon. Where do you want to see SEVENTEEN next? Let us know by leaving a comment below or reaching out to us on Instagram or Twitter.

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Fan photos by Kenna Miller