Community reactions to the concerts by the K-pop group Seventeen at the Olympic Sports Centre Stadium over the weekend have been mixed, local media reports.
According to a statement published by the event’s organiser, Supernoize Group, the boy band’s shows in Macao – the last on their Follow tour – attracted a total of 40,000 spectators.
Local residents told public broadcaster TDM that rehearsals for the shows were “pretty noisy” and that the concerts resulted in traffic jams. An op-ed in the Jornal San Wa Ou, argued that “disaster” could result for residents in areas near the stadium if a more popular K-pop group, such as BTS, were to hold a concert in the same venue.
Supernoize has apologised and said that it would improve the running of future events.
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However, some acknowledged the economic benefits that the event brought. Iun Ioc Va, the president of the Industry and Commerce Federation of Islands of Macao, told TDM that the business volume in the area had increased by three to five fold during the concert period.
One retailer expressed positive sentiments about the concert, saying that she hoped there would be “more events like this in the future to help the businesses nearby.”
Despite the concerns, the government intends to continue allowing public sports venues to be rented out for “purposes other than sports-related purposes,” said the head of the Sports Bureau Pun Weng Ku.
