K-pop group Stray Kids draws early crowd at Oracle Park as fans eager to buy merch

SAN FRANCISCO — K-pop superstars “Stray Kids” don’t perform until Wednesday night, but Oracle Park and the surrounding area is already drawing in fans and merchandise.

It even extends across the street to Bar Via.

“I had no clue,” said Hotel and Bar Via general manager Barbara Perzigian. “I didn’t know what to expect.”

Bar Via is unrecognizable. Instead of people drinking cocktails, there are tables of Stray Kids merchandise.

General Manager Barbara Perzigian said last time there was a K-pop concert at Oracle, there wasn’t a huge bar crowd, so she decided to rent out the space for merchandise sales.

“This is not the kind of stuff you usually see at a concert,” said Perzigian as she looked around. “There’s no t-shirts, there’s no sweatshirts, there’s not all the usual stuff that you see at a concert, but there’s a lot of stuff, there’s a lot of things.”

And the fans were ready to buy, peeking through the window before the pop-up event started.

“What I wasn’t ready for was, just as soon as they got in here, before they even began to set up, a whole line of people down the street trying to come in and buy merchandise,” explained Perzigian.

They asked people to come back Wednesday morning when they actually open. But outside Oracle Park, people were already making purchases.

“I got one of the evil skzoo shirts, the two tour shirts, the sweatpants and then the baseball jersey,” said Kylie Dewar as she showed off her purchases.

Dewar and Destiny Perez came in early from Sacramento to make sure they could get their merchandise before it sold out. They’ll be back even earlier Wednesday morning.

“Four in the morning because we have GA VIP, so we want to try and get a good spot,” said Perez.

The boy band has limited tours and a global fan base. Cynthia Mata is visiting from Southern California, just for the concert.

“It’s been a while since they’ve been here in North America, so yeah that’s why within an hour the tickets were sold out,” explained Mata, who came from Ontario.

She got off the plane and came directly to the merch sale. Whe even bought stuff to give away to other fans.

“Once you’re in line to wait to go into the concerts, you start making friends,” said Mata about the experience at the concert. “There’s this culture of giving out freebies. You gift stuff like bracelets, things for your phone.”

Back at Bar Via, Perzigian admits she doesn’t quite get it.

“Feel old? Yeah,” said Perizigian while laughing.

But she does appreciate what concerts like this, and the Kendrick Lamar and SZA concert on Thursday, do for the community.

“We love the concerts over there,” said Perzigian. “It’s just that extra bit of business to come in, and it’s extra excitement for the city and you know what? We need the city to emerge, to come back to be vibrant again.”

The pop-up store at Bar Via will be open Wednesday from 8 a.m. until 3 a.m. Thursday and will re-open Thursday morning from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m.