Whole Once More, Dreamcatcher Sets Out On New Travels In September

When Handong was announced to be participating in what would eventually be found to be Chinese show Youth With You 2, the subsequent time during which Dreamcatcher promoted as six members after her elimination from the show left many fans in anticipation of their pending return as seven. And while the circumstances surrounding Siyeon's hiatus from the group's activities were much different, that sense of hope to one day see a complete Dreamcatcher again persisted, even as fans supported the group's Main Vocalist taking as much time as she needed to return.

This past week saw the wait for Siyeon to come back end, much to everyone's relief and appreciation, and it was just in time for Dreamcatcher to begin one of their busiest months of 2024. As always, here's everything that happened to kick off Dreamcatcher's September!

As stated previously, the announcement that Siyeon would return to Dreamcatcher was met with happiness by the fandom, along with the hope that she wasn't rushing herself back to work too soon. With health-related hiatuses having a great degree of variance in terms of how long they last ((G)I-DLE's Soyeon took what amounted to be a weekend break while ITZY's Lia took close to a year to return), I know I had cautious optimism about Siyeon dropping back in after taking off an entire promotions period to rest up. Siyeon's subsequent (pre-recorded) official return to group media via a promotional message from partner MyMusicTaste meant that no time was wasted here but it was widely hoped that we'd see plenty of support from the company and fellow members as Siyeon eased back into activities.

Group news wasn't the only thing on the Dreamcatcher menu this past week, however. Dreamcatcher's SuA, who'd been announced to be a part of Quarter Music's "My Song, My Story" project, released her song "Feel Alive", along with a live clip-style, simple music video to go with it. The Behind video that showed up on the Dreamcatcher Official YouTube channel was just the bonus on top.

This is SuA's second foray into solo song territory - the first being her contribution to Korean drama Cafe Minamdang's OST with "Still with you", so it was nice to see SuA expand her solo palette with a different style of song. "Feel Alive" is an energetic and bright song, matched by a white background and styling that matches the upbeat tune SuA's singing. As my favorite member of Dreamcatcher, SuA's all-around talent has always impressed me, so it was great to see her branch out yet again and remind people she's got a wealth of skill as a K-Pop artist.

Yet SuA was not the only Dreamcatcher member hitting up activities this week. Late breaking news that Yoohyeon, Dami, and Gahyun would be attending the 2025 S/S Seoul Fashion Week during the ARTS DE BASE and DOUCAN segments meant that Dreamcatcher members got to flex their visuals and fashion modeling at the photo wall and as attendees.

This wasn't Yoohyeon or Gahyun's first foray into the fashion show event world - Yoohyeon was actually walked the runway as a model back in 2018 and attended with JiU in 2022, while Gahyun went with JiU earlier in 2024, but to my knowledge this was Dami's first walk down the stairs and they styled her quite well in a chic white and black outfit. The other news, of course, was a brand new hair color for Gahyun - a sky blue that was so striking that she said foreigners who were attending were asking for pictures.

Dreamcatcher Weverse LIVE - 김민지유🍒 - JI

먕~잠깐 왔어요 ㅎㅎ - JI U

Weverse Dreamcatcher

We heard all about this during a brief livestream on Weverse after the fashion show, one started by JiU but eventually joined by Dami, Handong, Gahyun, and Yoohyeon. JiU's constant compliments towards the other members for their work was typical for Dreamcatcher's Leader, and we also got more visual-related news seeing that Handong had decided to go a pink reminiscent of MOBA game League of Legends' Vi.

It's been a long time since we've had a group video livestream, so it was great to see most of Dreamcatcher having fun and checking in with fans - and if that wasn't enough we saw Yoohyeon trying out Instagram live as well with Gahyun making a brief appearance to mess around with filters and chat. Is this the beginning of more? We'll see.

Despite all this activity, the main event of this week was Dreamcatcher heading off to headline the inaugural K-Pop Istanbul festival in Türkiye, with fellow K-Pop girl group act Purple Kiss opening for them. This checked off yet another box on the Dreamcatcher list of places they've gone, and it was great to see that local organizers in Istanbul liked Dreamcatcher enough to invite them to anchor their event. In case the activities return announcement wasn't enough, the usual airport departure photos confirmed that Siyeon would indeed be attending, marking this as her first live performance with Dreamcatcher in a few months. The setlist appeared to be as follows:

• BOCA (Dystopia: Lose Myself, 2021)
• Scream (Dystopia: The Tree of Language, 2020)
• Rising (VersuS: VillainS, 2023)
• Wake Up (Prequel, 2017)
• Propose (Apocalypse: From Us, 2023)
• Silent Night (Raid of Dream, 2019)
• StΦmp! (VersuS: VirtuouS, 2024)
• JUSTICE (VersuS: VirtuouS, 2024)
• Fairytale (Apocalypse: Follow Us, 2022)
• BONVOYAGE (Apocalypse: From Us, 2023)
• REASON (REASON, 2023)
• New Days (Dystopia: Road to Utopia, 2021)

As expected, and despite a brief rain delay that shaved off some performance time, Dreamcatcher was well-received and did great live, and Istanbul festival attendees were treated to the very first live performance of latest title track "JUSTICE" and B-side "STФMP!" in all of their OT7 glory. From what we could see in fancams, the crowd was loud and proud, oftentimes not just cheering but doing song fanchants to many of Dreamcatcher's now-signature hits. The show seemed well-attended, selling out most of their front of stage tickets and general admission, so hopefully this serves as an endorsement for more K-Pop events in the area - and for Dreamcatcher to return for more festival fun.

Istanbul marks only the beginning of Dreamcatcher's travels in September, as they head down to Latin America for several stops and then back to the EU for KCon Germany. As always, you can count on me to cover all of the latest news on the group, so for all that, and more, I'll see you back here next Sunday!

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