Lotte Department Store said on the 10th that it will collaborate with YG Entertainment to run a 10-day project from the 14th to the 23rd around Lotte Town Jamsil to mark the 20th anniversary of Big Bang's debut. Rather than a single pop-up store, it plans to expand the space from Seokchon Lake to Lotte World Mall and Avenue L, building a single experiential route that combines exhibitions, cuisine, fan participation content, and merchandise sales.
With support from Songpa District, Lotte Department Store will decorate the Seokchon Lake area with nighttime scenery symbolizing Big Bang. During the event, lighting inspired by "Bang Bong," Big Bang's official light stick, will be installed at the east lake of Seokchon and the waterfront stage.
On Aug. 19, Big Bang's debut date, special lighting will be switched on at 8:19 p.m. An approximately 5-meter-tall "Bang Bong Crown" installation will also be set up at the waterfront stage as a photo spot for fans and visitors.
At Lotte World Mall, Big Bang IP (intellectual property) will be extended to food. On the basement first floor, bakery brands such as "What a Bread," "Drunken Dough," and "No Bad Vibes" will open relay pop-up stores to sell limited products developed to commemorate Big Bang's 20th anniversary. About 40 restaurants in the mall will use napkins with the 20th-anniversary design.
Content that fans can directly participate in has also been prepared. On the fifth-floor bridge consolidating Avenue L and Lotte World Mall, the "BIGBANG TO COSMOS" project will take place. It will present media art that converts messages of support left by the official fan club "VIP" into the format of the "Arecibo Message," a binary message transmitted into space in 1974, and renders them with light and images.
At the Avenue L sixth-floor Art Hall, an immersive media exhibition looking back on Big Bang's past 20 years will open. Under the concept of "the COSMOS," it will unveil activity archive videos, performance behind-the-scenes, and unreleased on-site photos. A listening zone with hanging headphones will also operate for enjoying Big Bang's music.
In addition, on the basement first floor of Lotte World Mall, a merchandise sales space for exhibition visitors will be set up to showcase limited-edition items produced to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Big Bang's debut.
Through this project, Lotte Department Store plans to draw not only domestic fans visiting Jamsil but also demand from foreign tourists. It aims to extend dwell time by broadening the scope from conventional K-pop pop-ups focused on exhibitions or product sales to experiential content that consolidates department stores, shopping malls, and external tourist spaces.
Park Sang-woo, head of marketing at Lotte Department Store, said, "As the number of foreign tourists visiting Lotte Town Jamsil continues to grow, we expect this project to offer domestic and international customers a special opportunity to experience K-pop content in a new way and elicit a strong response."