Stray Kids bring dominATE tour to Toronto for their first Canadian show
Screengrab from a /toronto post on Reddit.
Stray Kids brought their intense, high energy dominATE World Tour to Toronto at the end of June to a screaming crowd of some 50,000 euphoric fans and it was pretty great. The boys were also the inaugural guinea pigs performers at the newly built, semi-temporary Rogers Stadium at Downsview Park — or as Bang Chan put it, “in the middle of nowhere” (he’s not entirely wrong, lol). It was the final stop of their six-week North American tour and their first time in Canada. For now at least, they claim the title of most stadiums ever performed by a K-Pop act, according to Billboard. The World Music Awards says they also boast the largest K-Pop tour attendance in North American history, selling out 15 stadium concerts in 11 cities from Mexico City to Toronto, and coast to coast, with a total attendance of more than 630,330.
The show, which ran from about 7:45pm to a couple of minutes before 11pm, included two encores, and was packed with their most popular and biggest hits, including “S-Class”, “LALALALA”, “MANIAC”, and two separate performances of “Chk Chk Boom”. They opened with “MOUNTAINS” and closed out the show with “Star Lost.” You can see the full Toronto setlist here and even watch the entire concert here or here “in 4K”, thanks to fans with much better seats, lol. My personal favourites were probably the ballads, like Seungmin and Lee Know’s “Cinema”. (Here is the entire song clip, filmed by K-Pop fan popbubblejoy, who attended a whopping eight Stray Kids concert$ in seven North American cities, according to their YouTube channel. Whoever @popbubblejoy is, they had ridiculous seats, so their fancam footage is amazing; you can watch their entire Toronto playlist here.)
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Who doesn’t want closer seats if you can afford it or are willing to swing the hefty price tag? But I have to say, our nosebleeds at the back of the stadium gave us an amazing panoramic view of what the place looked and felt, especially when a diverse demographic of 50,000 people are simultaneously having the same joyous experience. And we certainly got a better view of the fireworks. Here’s my clip of the scene from the back where we sat in section N109 (LALALALA can be found around the 1:40 mark in the full concert videos above):
Speaking of demographics, I know this is not at all surprising or unusual for anyone immersed in K-Pop, but guys, Stray Kids fans are diverse. Of course, I knew it would be, but I am not sure I expected to see what felt like just as many — if not more — non-East Asian fans in attendance. There were middle-aged dads (who would have looked right at home at a baseball game) holding up signs with their teenage daughters, entire families, grown men sporting SKZ t-shirts, couples of varying ages sans kids. I even saw one or two Indian grandmas in saris with their families (sure, they were probably dragged by their grandkids, but still!). When I noted all this to my teen, who was attending his first concert and first K-Pop concert, he shrugged, “So? This is normal.”
The Gen Zs and Gen Alphas have such easy access to so much international and inclusive media content — literally at their fingertips — as long as they’re open to it! Sure, it’s imperfect, but as a Gen Xer who grew up on a very homogenous Western diet, this novelty has yet to wear off despite years of marvelling at the diverse and global nature of my kids’ media consumption across the board — in books, shows, films, and music. The closest I got were day trips to Toronto with my parents who borrowed stacks of VHS tapes of TVB dramas (specifically the 1983 version of The Legend of the Condor Heroes) from family friends … But I digress!
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I mostly recorded the group’s interactions with the audience (and amongst themselves) as well as the final 40 minutes of the concert, some of which I’ve posted on YouTube. I couldn’t always catch everything that was said, but they talked about coming back to Toronto, dropping new music, bugs, the weather, the beautiful crescent moon that evening, and all those Pearson-bound airplanes flying overhead. I wonder if anyone saw the concert from their plane and took photos?
The maze of scaffolding underneath where we sat in section N109 at Rogers Stadium. This is what supports thousands of screaming fans! Credit: Solarina Ho
New Stadium, First Show
So what about the new Rogers Stadium?? Well, let’s just say that it definitely feels…temporary! When our entire section began stomping their feet during a screaming contest, the growing rumble felt like a jetliner flying low overhead and a train simultaneously running underneath. I legit felt a moment of panic wondering if our entire section was going to collapse. And throughout the evening, you could feel the seats move along with the energy of the crowd. I never thought I would appreciate the simple solidity of seats bolted to unyielding, ugly concrete. And going up and down the hollow stairs, the faint creak of metal on metal was also a bit unnerving when you’re afraid of heights like me. (As an aside, 13 years ago in June 2012, a Radiohead technician was killed and another individual seriously injured at Downsview Park when a temporary stage built for the concert collapsed an hour before gates were set to open.) As for Sunday’s inaugural Rogers Stadium concert, Live Nation Canada said feeling the seats move was “expected as part of the design of the venue,” and that the structure “exceeded” international safety codes, according to a report by the Canadian Press. “What fans were experiencing was sort of a normal flex that would happen to absorb the energy of the crowd,” Wayne Zronik told the news agency. That must be reassuring for those sitting in the 54th row!
I didn’t really pay attention when they first announced a new stadium at Downsview Park, the 570+ acre tract of Crown land that was once home to an aircraft manufacturer, a Canadian Forces base, and an airport that officially closed in 2024. From a wild idea in 2024 to opening night, everything came together quickly, with the stadium built in nine months. A couple of weeks prior to the concert, I saw the stadium from afar, and it looked like an unfinished, hollow building with scaffolding everywhere.
As my group made our way to the stadium and through the queues on concert day, I was surprised by how temporary everything felt. If I had done my research, I would have learned that it is in fact, temporary. At least for the next five years or so. That explained why the entire setup felt like a pop-up concert or music festival — from the bare-bones stadium itself, to the make-shift signs along the way, the fencing, portable water stations, and upscale porta-potties. And obscenely long lines everywhere, for everything (except the extravagantly expensive food — a 710 ml can of Brisk was $9; a bacon, ham, and truffle grilled cheese sandwich was $20, fries were $9).
Maybe it was the happy fans, the weather, or some combination of everything, but it all felt pretty relaxed nonetheless. Given the 1:15 hour rain delay at Citi Field in Queens, New York, to the concert being cut short at Nationals Park in D.C. due to extreme heat conditions, the entire opening day experience in Toronto didn’t feel chaotic all things considered. Even drop-off in the afternoon and pick-up after the concert wasn’t too onerous — granted, I wasn’t the one driving! It was a bit of a walk getting out of the venue area, but when thousands of people are leisurely going in the same direction, the 15-30 minute walk (depending on which subway station you were trying to reach) didn’t feel long at all. We tried to walk far enough away from the worst of the post-concert traffic before catching our ride, which worked out for the most part.
That being said, I’m pretty sure band members got back to their hotel faster than some fans, lol. Sometime just after midnight, Hyunjin and Changbin were already live streaming from what looked like a hotel room. While Hyunjin got decidedly sillier after they finished eating, two-thirds of it was basically 55K people just watching them eat instant noodles and Pizza Hut.🤯🤣
