“What a disgrace” — Fans outraged over ‘Burning Sun’ event naming and Seungri’s special guest appearance announcement

On Friday, August 9, the Indonesian event planning company TSV Management announced that the former BIGBANG member Seungri will be making a guest appearance at an upcoming event called Burning Sun Surabaya. The announcement was made through the agency's Instagram stories, and the event is scheduled to take place on August 31 at a gentlemen’s club in Surabaya, Indonesia.

Following the announcement, netizens have expressed frustration and anger. The name of the event, Burning Sun Surabaya, references the Burning Sun scandal, a major controversy involving Seungri. This scandal, which began in 2018, centered around a Gangnum bar, owned by Seungri.

The bar was exposed for its various illegal activities, such as assaulting women and filming them without consent, spreading nonconsensual tapes through chatrooms, etc. The owner of the bar, Seungri, was sentenced to three years of imprisonment in August 2021.

The idol recently returned to the industry after his release from jail in February 2023, and this upcoming appearance will mark his first schedule since his release. While many netizens were already displeased by the idol's return, the recent announcement has further fueled their outrage.

Here's how fans reacted to the news:

"What a disgrace, these people make a kpop night party in Surabaya, Indonesia using Burning Sun as a title and "BIGBANG Seungri" himself will perform at that event like how stupid you can be? And i seriously don't know what to say anymore Seungri seriously has no shame."

Several others expressed similar sentiments on social media platforms.

"We all knew it was not about humanity and morals but this is crazy…," a fan on X wrote.

"Such no hypocrisy and literally no self awareness...," a netizen commented.

"This is so disgusting. Those same indonesian who want to lecture about morals be the same ones still supporting an abuser like him," another netizen wrote.

More netizens talked about how disrespectful and unnecessary it was to name an event at a gentleman's bar as Burning Sun with Seungri as a special guest.

"The disrespect to the victims. Stans still defend saying he's not guilty but there's bunch of vids that show his sh!tty attitude towards females he get away easily with power instead of believing victims they still support these lwsrs," a fan wrote.

"That's really so disgusting. So fcking disturbing," another person commented

"No matter if they believe him to be innocent, using the name that is associated with r*pe of innocent women? These people want to guardians of morals," one X user reacted.

"It's the audacity for me," another netizen added.

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All you need to know about the Burning Sun scandal

The Burning Sun scandal initially broke down in 2019. It was an entertainment industry controversy that exposed several famous Korean celebrities for their alleged illegal activities. Seungri was exposed for his alleged usage of drugs on his female clubgoers and further continued to assault the women through his Gangnam bar.

Some of these assaults were recorded by the idol and passed around through the KakaoTalk group chat, which other Korean celebrities were a part of. Some of these are Eddy Kim, Lee Jong-hyun, Yong Jun-hyung, and more. Seungri, the Burning Sun bar owner, was arrested for his actions. The others involved in the controversy faced different-level charges.

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Most recently, the scandal resurfaced following the release of a BBC documentary titled Burning Sun: the BBC Eye. The documentary talked about the women who fell victim to the scandal, the people who worked towards bringing the controversy to light, the stories behind the group chats, and more.