Aespa’s Winter survives attack attempt at music festival red carpet
By Carl Samson
December 28, 2023
Aespa’s Winter narrowly escaped an unidentified man who charged toward her at a major South Korean music festival on Christmas Day.
What happened: The incident, which was caught on video, occurred at this year’s SBS Gayo Daejeon, the annual, end-of-year music festival by broadcaster SBS. The man, who was holding a camera, ran toward Winter on the red carpet, shocking spectators at the Inspire Arena.
Security personnel managed to tackle the man just before he reached Winter, who had been waving to the crowd. However, while being escorted out of the venue, the man reportedly continued to struggle and attempted to move toward the 22-year-old Aespa member.
The big picture: The incident reignited concerns over artist safety at public events, particularly high-profile ones such as the Gayo Daejeon. This year, the SBS event saw performers across K-pop generations, including TVXQ, Shinee, NCT (127 and Dream), Riize, (G)I-dle, Itzy, Le Sserafim, NewJeans and Ive, to name a few.
Additionally, it was not the first time Winter became involved in a security matter. In August, an anonymous death threat directed at her was posted in an online community, prompting her label SM Entertainment to file a criminal complaint.
Reactions: Aespa fans, affectionately known as My, expressed relief over the unsuccessful attack against Winter and praised the event’s security team for doing their job. Still, some called for tighter security measures.
“If someone didn’t step in quick enough then this incident could’ve escalated, endangering Winter’s safety,” one noted. “Please strengthen security for the future as Winter’s safety has been threatened before and take necessary action against the individual.”
“SM should pay attention to the issue…when Winter did the IG live days ago, [a] sasaeng [fan] called her and even posted the video on Instagram,” another claimed.
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