When TWICE announced they would be performing in Denver, Eristeo Graciano “went crazy.”
“I was screaming,” Graciano told Denverite. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, we have to go, please. You don't even have to buy me merch, just take me. I just want to be in a good seat. I just want to see them.’”
Graciano and his boyfriend, Argeni Hau, organized a fan event for TWICE fans — or ONCEs — over the weekend at Pacific Alley Co., an Aurora store that sells stationery and K-pop-related items.
The massive girl group from South Korea is on their “THIS IS FOR” world tour, and they won plenty of new fans after featuring on the "KPop Demon Hunters" soundtrack. They’re playing at Ball Arena, which seats up to 20,000 people. They’re likely the biggest K-pop act to ever perform in Denver, with over 16 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
“This is my first big girl group that I'm going to see live, so I'm very excited but also nervous,” Hau told Denverite.
He said his place in the Ticketmaster queue while trying to buy tickets was in the thousands.
“I wasn't sure if I was going to get the tickets or not, and that was the nerve-racking part, but we did and I'm very excited,” he said.
The couple’s fan event was one of many across the Front Range. Graciano and Hau set up tables inside the store so that participants could make pickets — handheld signs seen at K-pop concerts. They’re decorated with images of group members, also known as idols.
“You can wave it around at the concert to support the idol,” said Daphne, a teen who was at the event with her friend Gila.
Support from a diverse city
K-pop fan events are common in Aurora, Colorado's most diverse city. Koreans make up one of the biggest Asian groups in the state, with almost 34,000 people identifying as Korean in 2024.
“I feel like in Aurora we do have more of a variety of K-pop and Asian culture,” Hau said, who lives in Glendale.
K-pop has gone global, though. Even before the release of the movie "KPop Demon Hunters" last year, Korean music has been growing in popularity internationally. The Korea Herald reported last month that U.S. and European consumers combined spent around $64 million on K-pop in 2025.
“With TWICE coming, it's really exciting because I grew up not having any K-pop or people that looked like me in the media,” said Mei T., who was at the fan event and declined to provide her full last name. “For them to come to Colorado, I’m really emotional about it.”
The Pacific Alley Co. fan event showcased the diversity of K-pop fans, with participants ranging in age and ethnicity.
“K-Pop is for everybody,” Graciano said. “It doesn't matter what you are, who you are, what you identify as — they, them, he, she, her — whatever it is, the community is going to embrace you because that's what it is.”
Reggie Mojica owns Pacific Alley Co. and said business is “really good.” The storefront on Havana Street hosts K-pop events almost every weekend.
“Age range goes anywhere from 12 to 60. The K-pop community is huge,” he said. “It's a variety of ethnicities. A lot of people enjoy K-pop as a whole, not just the music, but they enjoy the merchandise, everything about K-pop.”
Organizing online
Colorado ONCEs also used the power of Instagram to execute a fan project, mobilizing around 200 concertgoers in a group chat to help make and pass out paper hearts to surprise TWICE during their song “What is Love?”.
“It’s getting regular pieces of colored paper, making them into little hearts and then those who have the hearts can put it up to their phone flashlight,” Avery James, one of the project organizers, told Denverite. “It'll create color lights for TWICE to see and just kind of take it all in and enjoy.”
She hopes the effort will show “other groups, K-pop or not, that Denver is one of the places to add to (their) list.”
James is driving from Cheyenne to Denver for the show.
“Whatever it takes to see Twice live lol,” James wrote in an email.
Some tickets are still available online. Prices start at about $130.
