Stray Kids vs Ateez at Club Gramofon in Sofia on October 16 - a K-pop night with a DJ set and the cover group AL1ER

Stray Kids vs Ateez: two of the most popular boy groups in Korean pop "clash" at Sofia's Club Gramofon on October 16. Not with them on stage, but with a DJ, cover dancers and a crowd that knows the choreography by heart. Starts at 23:00.

Stray Kids debuted in 2018 on the JYP label, and Ateez the same year under KQ Entertainment. Both groups have eight members each, and both have reached number one on the US Billboard 200 chart. Their fans have names: STAY for Stray Kids and ATINY for Ateez, and the organisers from Golden Eight Music address them exactly that way. The night follows their earlier K-pop nights dedicated to BLACKPINK and BTS.

The programme has three parts. The DJ set spins "MANIAC", "God's Menu", "BOUNCY" and "HALAZIA" plus dozens more songs from both discographies. The main act is the Bulgarian cover group AL1ER, which recreates the choreography of both groups, and the organisers say the group took first place at the EDC24 and BattleFest 26 competitions. At the end the floor is open: anyone who wants to can perform their own cover choreography in front of the crowd, after signing up on Instagram.

A standard ticket costs 15.89 euros and the last tickets 19.89 euros, or roughly 979 to 1,225 denars, through bilet.bg. The group ticket bundle is already sold out. When the stars are in Seoul and the fans are in Sofia, the crowd builds its own stage. How much longer will the Balkans wait for the real concert?