Photo = JYP ENTERTAINMENT

 

[Hanteo News = Reporter KANG SUYOUNG] A festival bearing Stray Kids’ name will be held in Latin America.

 

Stray Kids will release its digital single ‘RUN IT’ at 1 PM tomorrow (24th). The new song is a pre-release track from the group’s new mini album ‘THIS & THAT,’ which will be released on August 7. Starting July 25, the group’s new world tour ‘Stray Kids World Tour <RUN IT>’ will begin with five performances at Seoul’s KSPO DOME. Through this tour, which will continue to Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka, Hong Kong, Taipei, Bangkok, and Singapore, Stray Kids will become the first overseas male artist to enter Tokyo National Stadium for a solo concert.

 

The most notable news comes in September. U.S. concert promoter Live Nation and JYP ENTERTAINMENT announced that they will hold a new festival, ‘STRAYCITY,’ planned with Stray Kids as the headliner, in Bogotá, Colombia on September 9, Buenos Aires, Argentina on September 14, and Mexico City on September 25. Stray Kids will headline every show, while local artists active in each city, including JYP junior group NEXZ as well as Andrés Obregón, René, and Bad Milk, will join as support acts. The name of the festival itself, inspired by “Stray” from the group’s name, shows that Stray Kids is the very identity of this stage.

 

There is a reason Latin America was chosen as the stage. According to ‘Hanteo Rewind 2025,’ published by Hanteo Chart, Stray Kids recorded album sales of 1,329,160 copies in the Americas last year, about 3.6 times higher than No. 2 SEVENTEEN’s 372,387 copies, and drew 852,991 attendees across 21 shows in 15 cities, about 2.5 times higher than No. 2 ATEEZ’s 342,607 attendees. This record came as part of the 2025 world tour ‘Stray Kids World Tour <dominATE>,’ which included solo concerts in five Latin American cities: Santiago in March, followed by Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Lima, and Mexico City in April. The group also remained in the top 10 of the U.S. category on Hanteo’s country-specific chart for 46 weeks, 4.6 times longer than the No. 2 groups, which stayed for 10 weeks. As a result, at the 33rd Hanteo Music Awards 2025, Stray Kids won five awards, including the Grand Prize in the Album category and the Artist Awards by continent for North America, South America, Europe, and Africa. In particular, its drawing power stood out in Latin American cities, including Mexico City with 109,963 attendees across two shows, São Paulo with 110,479 attendees across two shows, Rio de Janeiro with 49,063 attendees, Santiago with 48,229 attendees across two shows, and Lima with 43,806 attendees. This means that the ‘STRAYCITY’ host countries of Colombia, Argentina, and Mexico were not chosen by chance.

 

Stray Kids being invited to headline another festival and ‘STRAYCITY’ are stories on different levels. From Lollapalooza Paris in France and the Global Citizen Festival in the U.S. in 2023 to I-Days in Italy, British Summer Time Hyde Park in the U.K., Lollapalooza Chicago in the U.S. in 2024, and Governors Ball in New York this year, Stray Kids has already stood as a headliner at many major festivals. However, those stages were invitations to festivals that already existed. ‘STRAYCITY’ is different. It is a stage newly created by Live Nation and JYP after recognizing Stray Kids’ ticket power and global influence, and other artists will stand on that stage with them. It is not a structure where the headliner is invited to a festival, but one where a festival is created for the headliner.

 

From a new song and new album to a new world tour and a festival bearing its name, Stray Kids’ summer of 2026 shows the process of one team’s range of activity expanding beyond tours into a platform.

 

grace@hanteo.com

 

 

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