El Paso Literally Shook The Earth For BTS And Samsung Noticed

While parts of the internet spent the weeks after the BTS ARIRANG World Tour stop at the Sun Bowl telling El Paso it did not deserve to be on the setlist, a seismograph at UTEP was busy telling a different story.

UTEP's own Kidd Memorial Seismological Observatory confirmed on their official social media that the BTS concerts generated actual seismic waves. Their words:

"During the BTS concerts in El Paso, the Kidd Memorial Seismological Observatory at The University of Texas at El Paso recorded seismic waves generated by thousands of fans dancing and jumping together. These signals are called anthropogenic seismic activity, vibrations caused by human activity rather than tectonic plate movement."

El Paso did not just show up for BTS. El Paso moved the earth for BTS. A university seismograph picked it up and put it on record. As far as I can tell, no other news outlet has reported this yet, and that feels like a problem worth fixing.

The El Paso Hate Was Loud And Also Wrong

I went down the rabbit hole on this one, digging through video after video of the post-concert discourse online. What I found was a clear pattern. The biggest complaints were not coming from people who attended the shows. They were coming from fans who watched through livestreams and decided that gave them enough to render a verdict on our city.

El Paso did not deserve the mystery songs it received. The crowd was not loud enough. The city did not know how to treat BTS. The list went on.

Here is the thing about livestream audio: it is engineered to prioritize the music, not the crowd. The mics are set up to capture BTS, not 48,000 people screaming their hearts out. Arguing that El Paso was not loud enough based on a livestream feed is the concert review equivalent of judging a restaurant by its parking lot. We now know, courtesy of a university seismograph, that the crowd energy at the Sun Bowl was measurable on scientific instruments. That should be the end of the conversation.

As for how the city treated BTS, anyone who was not here simply had no way of knowing. Iris and I ran a full BTS week on air at KISS El Paso leading up to the shows, and the listener response was unlike anything we expected. We had members of BoraPaso and the ARMY Buddy System come on with us to talk about what they had built for the weekend. BoraPaso was created by El Paso siblings Nadia and Noah Saenz as a full digital travel guide for fans coming into the city, covering local restaurants, fan meetups, and events. The ARMY Buddy System was built by a local fan named Megan, who designed a platform to help concertgoers find out who they were sitting next to, connect ahead of time, and share freebies and goodies throughout the weekend. These were local people who loved their city enough to build something from scratch to make sure every visitor had the best possible experience.

Businesses across El Paso ran BTS-themed food and drink specials all weekend. Storefronts had decorations in their windows. Signs welcomed both the band and Army members traveling in from out of town. It was full BTS fever from one end of the city to the other, and the fans who actually made the trip here saw all of it and said so loudly in their own videos pushing back against every complaint with firsthand accounts. Oh, and the biggest light up star in the United States was lit up for BTS not once, but TWICE! The first time in the colors of the AIRIRANG Tour when BTS in EP was announced, and again by fans who rallied to get it lit up in purple for the concert weekend.

Long Lines Are Not Just An El Paso Problem

The one criticism with real teeth was the crowd flow situation before and after the shows. Getting in and out of UTEP was rough, and nobody is going to pretend otherwise. I myself got stuck in traffic for over 2 hours just trying to get from one side of UTEP to the other.

But experienced Army members who have followed this tour across multiple stops were quick to point out that college bowl venues consistently struggle to handle BTS-sized crowds. Every stop on this tour with that type of venue has dealt with the same bottleneck issues. What El Paso did differently: UTEP delayed the start of the show so that everyone could get inside before the music began. At the Tampa stop in Florida, fans reported missing significant portions of the performance while still waiting in line outside. That did not happen here. UTEP made sure its guests saw the whole show.

Even Samsung and BTS Themselves Noticed El Paso

On top of the seismic record, Samsung chose the El Paso Sun Bowl stop to feature in its Galaxy S26 Ultra commercial, using footage of our city, our Army crowd, and the performance to promote its flagship smartphone to a global audience. Their caption called it out directly: El Paso showed up loud. One of the most recognized tech brands on the planet looked at the world tour so far and decided El Paso was worth showing off.

BTS also quietly visited Starr Western Wear at 112 E. Overland Ave. during their El Paso weekend and picked up western hats, belts, and accessories from brands including Resistol, Bullhide, Justin, Charlie 1 Horse, and Cuadra. Days later, those exact hats showed up on stage in Mexico City. J-Hope was spotted in a Cuadra brand hat straight from Overland Avenue. El Paso culture went on an international tour whether the internet approved or not.

At the end of both nights at the Sun Bowl, BTS told El Paso they loved the crowd and that they want to come back in the future. Who knows, maybe that's just typical end of the night concert "pillow talk" but it felt very genuine. Especially considering they went on to praise the city both nights on their after concert livestreams, it didn't feel like a passing fling!

Sorry to everyone watching from a livestream who decided they knew better. A university seismograph does not lie. El Paso showed out and The Sun City is already looking forward to the next visit.