Dreamcatcher Resumes Activities, Setting Up An October Circus For Fans
K-Pop — Dreamcatcher Recall
Content drops and future plans continued through Dreamcatcher’s quarantine, with a late October 2021 online concert announced to kick off fall.
When the news dropped on September 19th, 2021 that youngest member Gahyeon was diagnosed with COVID-19, fans knew that we’d see much less of Dreamcatcher as they understandably and correctly prioritized their health and safety, with Gahyeon entering a hospital stay for treatment and the others self-isolating for the next two weeks. For a group who is used to being busy and a fandom who is accustomed to seeing both scheduled and random bits of content, the huge reduction in activities seemed at first to be jarring, perhaps even concerning.
Thankfully, with Gahyeon exiting the hospital and the announcement that Dreamcatcher would be resuming activities after final negative tests for the virus, the group appears to have come out of the other end of this understandably harrowing event ready to get back to work (under the close supervision and health monitoring of Dreamcatcher Company, of course). But even with a lessening of most content from (a sometimes bored) Dreamcatcher during quarantine, content continued to be served as much as possible, with the crown jewel being the announcement of “Halloween Midnight Circus”, a late October online concert in conjunction with frequent partner MyMusicTaste. Let’s take a quick look at what we saw these past couple of weeks!
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caf9bu3GG4w[/embed][embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNay4ICbgsc[/embed][embed]https://twitter.com/hf_dreamcatcher/status/1443507917819310081[/embed]
The name of the game content-wise during Dreamcatcher’s time in COVID-19 self-quarantine was, not surprisingly, time-delayed content releases — pre-recorded items that were already in place before the isolation period. Chuseok, a harvest festival multi-day holiday celebrated in South Korea, brought with it the usual greeting and well wishes for the event from Dreamcatcher on the official channel. Show Champion dropped in a segment of their “Behind” series featuring Dreamcatcher backstage during their “BEcause” promotions. And on September 30th, the first part of an appearance by JiU, SuA, and Gahyeon on Korean-based YouTube variety show “The Man Who Grills Meat”, a chill-looking interview show conducted over a meal including grilled sliced beef, was also uploaded, with at least three more parts forthcoming.
But it was Dreamcatcher’s appearance on “Legendary Trainee”, a new variety show uploaded to the ALL THE K-POP channel, that was perhaps one of the best and most heartwarming delayed content uploads of the quarantine. Featuring artist Sunny (a member of iconic K-Pop girl group Girls’ Generation/SNSD) playing the role of a new trainee hoping to debut and getting advice from current Korean artists and groups, Dreamcatcher recorded this episode on August 30th, and it wasn’t until a couple weeks ago that we finally got to see what happened. Among other fun moments, which included playing games with fans on a video call and demonstrating their coordination and stage presence, long-time SNSD fan Dami got to have her 2nd generation fankit signed personally by Sunny and snap a few pictures. Normally perceived the calm and collected member of the group’s relative chaos, Dami became understandably nervous but also a mix of shy and excited to meet a member of one of her most treasured groups, who’ve no doubt served as inspiration for her own success with Dreamcatcher. Much like Yoohyeon’s meeting of Sunmi, this was clearly a highlight and milestone of Dami’s career as a K-Pop artist, and it’s these sorts of “successful fan” moments that make the hard work and long hours she’s no doubt put into her job worth it. Not surprisingly, the rest of Dreamcatcher was ecstatic for Dami getting some time with a member of a favorite group and had great chemistry with the veteran idol.
[embed]https://twitter.com/idolchamp1/status/1443147296460337157[/embed][embed]https://twitter.com/MSO_dc/status/1443100914072444929[/embed][embed]https://twitter.com/NYLONManila/status/1440620639019147268[/embed][embed]https://twitter.com/TofuPopRadio/status/1440602295675146252[/embed][embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjbPx5Kpgds[/embed][embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwz-f_Oaz2Y[/embed][embed]https://twitter.com/hf_dreamcatcher/status/1443591482418425877[/embed]
Dreamcatcher’s time-delayed content train over the past couple weeks was also not just limited to direct appearances via videos. Two interviews — one with an outlet based out of the Phillippines and another with a tradition station from Thailand — were aired, and the result of fans voting for JiU in a poll in the Idol Champ app was published in Forbes Korea in the form of a 2-page ad. There was no livestream just yet for obvious reasons for main vocalist Siyeon’s birthday, but Siyeon Day was nevertheless celebrated by the company with a cute childhood photo. Finally, concerns that any promotions for upcoming Dreamcatcher-related merchandise/collaborations were also quickly swept aside even as video calls for them were pushed back to accommodate the quarantine. Mysterious Mansion/Dreamcatcher Mind merchandise packages began to make their way to fans, and NEOGEN began promotions for their hand cream/body mist collaboration with Dreamcatcher by running a large video ad near Seoul’s Samsung Station and putting up a NEOGEN x Dreamcatcher event related to it for local fans to participate in. The continuation of these efforts, even as Dreamcatcher themselves were limited to Weverse posts and short messages on Twitter, showcased just how much content is typically in the tank for the group, and why many Dreamcatcher fans feel that as InSomnia, they’re quite spoiled with continuous drops of stuff from the members and the company.
[embed]https://twitter.com/_mymusictaste/status/1443229081361866753[/embed]
But this feeling of being spoiled with content perhaps didn’t quite crystallize during Dreamcatcher’s time in self-isolation until the very end of the period, when MyMusicTaste announced it would be running another online concert with Dreamcatcher at the end of October. Titled “Halloween Midnight Circus”, it seems that Dreamcatcher is continuing on with the disturbing doll-like characterization and amusement park setting to bring out a Halloween concert to likely attempt to top last year’s “Seven Spirits” concert, which was around the same time. Instead of celebrating Handong’s return to the group as was the case for that concert, this time around has the unexpected bonus benefit of celebrating Dreamcatcher’s return to live performance after having to cancel their KCON:TACT HI 5 appearance due to COVID-19. The Halloween Midnight Circus concert purchase page, where tickets have just gone on sale this past week, has a ton of different pricing packages, from just picking up the concert livestream (and limited time VOD) all the way to a $179.99 USD “Ultimate InSomnia VVIP” deal that has a ton of different merchandise (some exclusive to the tier) as well as everything the lower-priced packages have in store, from additional VODs to a chance to win a signed piece of merchandise, and more.
While this concert was likely in the works before Dreamcatcher’s quarantine, the fact that this news dropped is a welcome sign for both the group and its fans, as both are no doubt anxious to have a live performance after a dearth of practice/activities. It also will most certainly include some creative subunit or individual stages, as well as a Halloween flair, especially as a later tweet announced there will be “XR” (extended reality) stages which will presumably add to the atmosphere (for an example, you can check out Dreamcatcher’s KCONTACT: 2 performance of BOCA).
Hopefully Dreamcatcher, and especially Gahyeon, will be well-rested and at 100% for what is shaping up to be a busy October! Like other fans, I’m glad everyone seems to be ok, and that we’ll be getting back to a relatively normal schedule, so if you don’t want to miss any of the news and goings-on about the group, be sure to follow, clap, and signal boost the check out of the Recall every week! I’ll be back at this time next week with what will no doubt be more Dreamcatcher news as the group gets back to work. See you then!
