Seoul Turns Into “Irene City” Ahead of Red Velvet Irene’s Birthday

She is all over Seoul!
Stories
Andrea Nolan
Andrea Nolan

From giant billboards wishing her a happy birthday to subway ads and cafe events, Red Velvet‘s Irene has taken over the metropolitan city of Seoul. Irene’s fans have always been known for going above and beyond when celebrating their idol’s birthday, but this year they’ve definitely outdone themselves. In fact, the city is so full of Irene today, fans have started calling it “Irene City.”

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Fan birthday events are familiar to any K-Pop fan, seeing your bias’s face on multiple ads around the South Korean capital will always be a special feeling. The idols themselves talk about how the events give them more motivation to show the same amount of love back to their fans.

| @renebaebae/Instagram

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Irene is one of the most popular K-Pop idols in the country, being one of the most beautiful and talented stars in the industry has helped the idol build a strong and supportive fanbase with whom she shares a special bond. Fans have supported her since the day she made her official debut with the rest of Red Velvet on August 2014 and their love for her has never wavered.

Proof of this are the countless birthday events and ads that continue to take over Seoul every end of March, despite it being the eighth year in a row she has celebrated her birthday with fans. Back in 2020 she even became the first female idol to have more than 1000 subway ads, showing the power of her fanbases.

Last year, Irene even went on a birthday cafe tour herself to show her gratitude. She appeared at various birthday cafe events organized by fans and made sure to grab some of the goods available and save them as sweet memories.

The idol later went on DearU Bubble to share pictures of herself with the goods from the cafes.

This year also, Seoul has Irene showing in almost every corner of it. Some fans have chosen to cover buses with fanmade edits that wish her the happiest birthday.

Other fanbases, such as her popular Chinese fanbase IreneBar have plastered different pictures of Irene through the years on the walls of Seoul’s underground subway stations, frequented by many.

Following the popularity and success of last year’s birthday cafe events, they have seemed to multiply this year with several already having started hosting fans who come to celebrate their idol’s birthday together and leave the site with different fanmade merchandise. Irene’s fans took to Twitter to share pictures from their experience when visiting these cafes.

Some of the most famous and frequented streets of Seoul, such as Hongdae, are also full of billboards with several fan edits and different banners.

Though celebrating Irene’s birthday all over Seoul, and other big cities in the world, isn’t the only way Irene’s fans chose to do it. Many fanbases are known to fund multiple charity projects under her name. This year, her Indonesian fans have donated 50 Mangrove seeds on her behalf.

Last year, her Chinese fanbase IRENE-iRecord did several charity donations, including funding the education of young girls part of different ethnic minorities as well as donating rice cakes to schools that rehabilitate children with impaired hearing.

Irene’s international fanbase chose to donate to the Korean Unwed Mothers’ Families Association through one of Irene’s Twitter fan update accounts Irene Global.

On March 29, Irene will celebrate her 32nd birthday (the idol is 33 years old in Korean age) alongside countless fans.

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