'Possibly the Worst Stray Kids Concert' : What Happened at Stray Kids Washington DC Show

Alright babes, strap in because boy, do we have tea to spill. Monday, June 23rd, Stray Kids performed at Nationals Park Stadium in Washington, DC, as a part of the North American leg of their DominATE tour. Their show coincidentally happened to collide with one of the most extreme heat waves to hit the East Coast in years, and it seems everyone was feeling the effects of it. With multiple weeks' worth of heads up on the dangerous weather, you'd think the people putting on the tour, LiveNation, as well as the stadium, would be well prepared to take care of its concert-goers, but that doesn't seem to be the case. This is the 2025 Washington DC show of Stray Kids being called 'possibly the worst Stray Kids concert to date.'

Who are Stray Kids, and what is the DominATE tour?

Stray Kids, a 4th generation K-pop group, has skyrocketed in fame in the past few years, winning Billboard Awards, MTV Music Awards, a People's Choice Award, and even this past week, a Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award. The group, consisting of 8 members - Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, Han, Felix, Seungmin, and I.N., is in the middle

of their third world tour and just finished their Washington, DC show on June 23rd. Initially announced on July 8th, 2024, the tour kicked off in Seoul, South Korea on August 24th, 2024, and is still going strong with two more shows left in the North American leg of the tour. The DC concert that took place at Nationals Park Stadium on June 23rd was far from the K-pop dream fans of Stray Kids [STAYS] thought they were getting, however.

The issue going into the concert that was very apparent was the inevitable heat wave. It began hitting the East Coast over the weekend and is continuing through Tuesday, June 24th. Fans of the K-pop sensations have been preparing for this life-threatening heat wave for weeks, with many buying fans and cooling rags, stocking up on Liquid I.V., and making sure to hydrate well beforehand. In theory, all of these things combined leave fans in perfect health for the weather, but it doesn't seem like much could help when it came to beating this heat.

The Downfall of DC's Concert

Preconcert

Besides the hellish heat hitting the city, the first sign of bad news was at the VIP soundcheck. Fans were offered a chance to see the boys before their main performance by purchasing the soundcheck VIP package. This package includes one premium reserved ticket, access to the pre-show soundcheck, and fun merchandise exclusives. Fans were told to begin queuing up at 3:30 pm and form a line; they did. That is, until the folks running the event decided to shut the gates in the faces of those still waiting to be let in at 5:08 pm. STAYS still in line were understandably confused and frustrated, but little to no explanation came about. Jas, @usernameisjas on TikTok, spoke out about her experience, saying, "They shut the gates like literally as we were about to go in. Right

everyone? Everyone that's lined up is not gonna get in, even though we all paid for it." Users in her comments were quick to share Jas's frustration. One user wrote, "I'm disputing w my bank. I’m so f***ing mad," with another user pointing out the similarities between venues, "At this point, Stray Kids or JYP should take action against the venues absolutely dropping the ball. It would be different if it was like 1 or 2 venues, but ALL of them are royally f***ing it up and ruining this for so many fans."

When time for the show started getting closer, fans who showed up at the suggested time of 5:30pm were shocked to find lines of people everywhere. Now, as common as this is for any large stadium concert, what didn't help was the lack of staff members to assist. Those who were on the field needed wristbands picked up before they could find their seats, but finding the specific gate to go to for this proved challenging for fans as there were three staff members passed in a mile long stretch. When asking the staff members who were there, one staff member said all lines went to the same place, one gave a specific spot to go towards, and another altogether said you did not need a wristband to enter the field. This miscommunication among the staff adds to the already overwhelming situation of dealing with the heat.

Speaking of the heat, I guess we should go ahead and address the elephant in the room. Ahead of the concert, fans were lined up as early as 5 am Monday morning. Although the warm weather did not reach it's peak until 6PM, fans were waiting in a consistent heat index of 102 degrees all day. When you see concert-goers online say 'people were dropping like flies,' they really aren't lying. If staff outside the venue were small in numbers, the amount of medics you could find were nonexistent. One medic ran past a line and was heard saying, "I need a raise, I don't get paid enough for this." With lines remaining stagnant from lack of order and people running through their only water bottle they were allowed to bring, you could hear someone yelling for a medic every five minutes, and that's just the beginning.

The Downfall of DC's Concert

The concert

By the time it came around for the concert to begin at 7:30 pm, Stray Kids were nowhere to be seen and neither were the hordes of fans still waiting in line outside. The concert itself didn't start until closer to 7:45 pm, presumably to give time for the remaining fans to find their seats, but this is unclear.

Signs of struggle seemed to fade away for a quick moment once the boys took their places on stage. The crowd erupted into one entity screaming as loud as possible. By the middle of song one, you could see the sweat dripping off of Hyunjin's face and it was clear the boys were feeling the heat just as much as all STAYs throughout the crowd. The boys toughed through the weather though and gave us the show they knew we needed. As high energy as they were, you could tell they were really struggling the longer the show went on.

Midway through the concert, the stadium completely ran out of not only water, but ice and Powerade too. The effect of this was devastating. The amount of people passing out seemed to have lessen once they got to their spots inside the stadium, but without anything to rehydrate, the fainting started back up in full force. One fan said she asked for a wheelchair for her friend, but the response given to her was one no one expected. A medic told her they had 30 people unconscious and little resources to provide. Stray Kids leader, Bang Chan, was the first to stop and say something. He stopped the show to ask fans in the pit to spread out and give each other more room. Once he realized fans had no water, he asked that more be brought out and passed out to the audience. Within seconds, staff with crates of water came out and passed around bottles. Over the course of the next few songs, members could be seen checking in on audience members while preforming and once the free bottles of water ran out, the members were seen handing out their own waters from the stage to those in need of it.

So picture this, you've been struggling with 98 degree heat for hours now, but all is right in the world because Stray Kids are about to come back out onto the stage and preform their first encore for the evening and you are going to tough it out to dance with them... but they don't come back out. In fact, right before their first encore, an announcement rang out stating the concert would be ending early due to extreme weather and from there, lights flooded the stadium and everyone was ushered out at once. Some fans stated that they could see the boys quickly being whisked away on golf carts with many wondering if the heat had caused some of them to fall ill.

When walking out of the venue, more fans could be seen passing out while trying to head home. The amount of people ill was enough cause for the Police Mass Casualty Task Force to be called out to assess the scene. We found out early morning Tuesday that six people were taken to the hospital for treatment.

LiveNation- the real evil?

The company behind organizing the tour for Stray Kids is LiveNation, one of the

largest entertainment management companies. LiveNation has been in the news quite a lot recently ever since Netflix released a documentary titled, "Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy," an event where many fans passed away and even more had to be hospitalized. Astroworld was a festival put on by Travis Scott and LiveNation in 2021. The documentary examines what led to such tragedy and how some festival attendees who survived handled the situation. LiveNation was sued over this festival and it's poor planning, but it seems they learned very little.

The stadium where the concert was held has also put out a statement Tuesday night saying, "Cooling centers and mist fans were available. Free water [was] in the pit area. Fans were allowed to bring in two sealed water bottles or empty ones to refill. Water filling stations were available." Unfortunately these claims by the stadium aren't completely true. Cooling centers had no signs and were not made aware to fans unless they were in the middle of a medical episode. The only two mist fans (that we are aware of) were on the second level behind the stage and staff members were forcing people to move and not crowd around them. Water was not made free until Bang Chan made it clear to the staff that people in the pit needed it desperately. Fans were only allowed to bring in one water bottle per an email sent out regarding the rules of the stadium beforehand and the water filling stations were not made aware of to fans until after the concert when the line was so long, fans were fainting while waiting.

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The Stray Kids concert in Washington DC has made history as the first Stray Kids show to be ended early. It seems the boys are blaming themselves for the situation and the poor planning, but many fans are quick to their defense. It seems the boys did not

realize the lack of resources provided to fans and were worried for the safety of everyone. We want to thank the medics and staff who worked tirelessly to provide medical attention to those in need of it, Stray Kids for paying attention and caring for their fans, and STAYs for always having each others backs. In such a dangerous situation, the community of the fan base was felt and those who cared for each other are the true heroes here.

*Unpaid Therapy was in attendance for this event. This is from our perspective of the concert as well as other fans who were in attendance.