BLACKPINK is about to turn 10 years old, but instead of spending the final hours before one of the biggest milestones in the group’s career celebrating, BLINKs are arguing over a hastily organized fan event, Korean media are asking how YG Entertainment allowed the anniversary to reach this point, and police are investigating a woman who attacked the entrance of YG’s headquarters with a golf club.
It is probably safe to say this is not how anyone imagined BLACKPINK’s first decade ending.
On the night of August 6, a woman in her 20s was arrested after repeatedly swinging a golf club at a glass door at YG Entertainment’s headquarters in Seoul’s Mapo District. Video of the incident quickly spread online, showing the woman striking the entrance before police detained her at the scene. Seoul Mapo Police confirmed that she had been arrested and was being questioned about the circumstances and her motive.
The timing inevitably attracted attention because the incident occurred while YG was already facing intense criticism over its handling of BLACKPINK’s 10th debut anniversary. However, there is currently no confirmed evidence that the woman attacked the building because of BLACKPINK or the anniversary controversy. Police have not publicly established her motive.
What is confirmed is that frustration among parts of BLACKPINK’s fandom had already been building long before anyone appeared outside YG with a golf club.
BLACKPINK’s 10th Anniversary Somehow Became a Last-Minute Event
BLACKPINK debuted on August 8, 2016. Reaching a 10th anniversary is significant for almost any pop group, but particularly in K-pop, where contracts, changing markets, military service for male groups, member departures and shifting career priorities mean relatively few idol groups remain intact and commercially relevant for a full decade.
BLACKPINK did considerably more than survive those 10 years. The group became one of the biggest touring acts to emerge from K-pop, headlined Coachella, topped the Billboard 200 and UK Albums Chart, and built four individual stars whose solo careers now operate largely outside YG.
That is precisely why expectations for the anniversary were so high.
Yet by the beginning of August, fans still had remarkably little to celebrate beyond commemorative products. Korean media criticized the lack of substantial anniversary content, while fans circulated variations of the same complaint: they wanted BLACKPINK, not another opportunity to buy BLACKPINK merchandise. Star News reported that the major publicly announced anniversary initiative had been a Heritage Collection produced with the National Museum of Korea.
Then, on August 6 — two days before the anniversary — YG finally announced an offline meet-and-greet.
Only 40 people could attend.
Applications were restricted to eligible paid BLACKPINK Weverse Membership holders and remained open for just nine hours, from 1 p.m. until 10 p.m. KST on August 6. The event itself would happen on August 8 somewhere in Seoul.
Even more surprisingly, YG initially could not promise that BLACKPINK would actually be there as BLACKPINK.
The announcement said members would participate depending on their schedules. In other words, fans applying for a 10th anniversary BLACKPINK event initially had no guarantee that Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé and Lisa would all attend.
YG subsequently confirmed on August 7 that all four members would participate.
That solved one problem. It did not answer the much larger question: How did one of K-pop’s biggest groups reach its 10th anniversary without having its anniversary celebration firmly organized beforehand?
Dispatch Says the Event Really Was Put Together at the Last Minute
According to a new Dispatch report, the chaotic appearance was apparently not just an appearance.
Dispatch reported that YG had proposed various anniversary plans over an extended period, but communication between the company and the BLACKPINK members had not gone smoothly. The outlet attributed the situation to problems on both sides: planning difficulties at YG and difficulties securing cooperation and schedules from the members.
According to the report, two members eventually expressed their willingness to attend, after which the remaining two hurried to coordinate their schedules so the entire group could participate.
Even after all four members were secured, organizers still had to determine when they could actually gather. Dispatch reported on August 7 — literally the day before BLACKPINK’s anniversary — that the event was being narrowed to daytime because of the members’ schedules.
The reported venue makes the situation even more unusual.
BLACKPINK’s 40-person meet-and-greet is expected to take place at the National Museum of Korea, which is also collaborating with the group on its anniversary merchandise collection. But Dispatch reported that YG and museum officials were still working out the specific location inside the museum.
Again: the day before the event.
A museum representative told Dispatch that nearly 40,000 people can visit the museum in a day and that organizers were discussing how to hold the event without interfering with ordinary visitor traffic.
Forty BLACKPINK fans, four global superstars and potentially tens of thousands of museum visitors is certainly one way to celebrate a decade together.
Fans Have Been Complaining About BLACKPINK Anniversaries for Years
What makes the reaction more complicated is that dissatisfaction with YG’s approach to BLACKPINK anniversaries did not begin in 2026.
There have certainly been meaningful celebrations.
For BLACKPINK’s third anniversary in 2019, the group held its first “Private Stage” at Olympic Hall in Seoul, with two performances that allowed BLACKPINK and BLINKs to spend an extended event together.
The fifth anniversary in 2021 was considerably more ambitious on paper. YG launched the “4+1 Project,” a five-part celebration that included BLACKPINK: The Movie, a limited-edition The Album photobook, a Summer Diary, BLACKPINK joining Weverse and a commemorative pop-up exhibition.
There was just one problem.
A substantial portion of it involved things fans could buy.
The reaction became contentious enough that one K-pop discussion community created a dedicated megathread to contain the repeated complaints about the anniversary, the lack of new music and the quality of the 4+1 projects. Fans complained that an anniversary supposedly designed as a gift to BLINKs often felt more like YG giving BLINKs several new opportunities to give YG money.
That complaint sounds remarkably familiar five years later.
Some Anniversaries Were Considerably Better
The sixth anniversary in 2022 arrived at a much happier moment. BLACKPINK were preparing Born Pink, “Pink Venom” was coming, and the massive Born Pink World Tour was on the horizon. YG also held a “Happy BLACKPINK Day” event at the SameE Cafe near its headquarters, where fans could visit a BLACKPINK photo zone and receive postcards, message cards and stickers.
For the seventh anniversary in 2023, YG went global. BLACKPINK imagery appeared across major U.S. cities, 76 screens at New Jersey’s Secaucus Junction were used for anniversary displays, a commemorative photo booth appeared at a New York pop-up, and Starbucks locations across nine Asian markets participated in anniversary promotions.
Then came one of the more meaningful celebrations.
For BLACKPINK’s eighth anniversary in 2024, all four members reunited for the “Our Area With BLINK” fan signing event. YG selected 88 fans, an obvious reference to BLACKPINK’s August 8 debut date, after inviting fans to submit letters, drawings, photographs and stories about their memories with the group. Applications opened on July 19 and remained open until July 26, giving fans a full week to participate.
Compare that with 2026.
The eighth anniversary fan event was announced approximately three weeks beforehand, had a week-long application period, invited 88 people and explicitly centered the members.
The 10th anniversary event was announced two days beforehand, allowed nine hours for applications, invited 40 people and initially could not guarantee which BLACKPINK members would attend.
That comparison helps explain why fans are asking what happened.
The Ninth Anniversary Was Already Relatively Modest
BLACKPINK’s ninth anniversary in 2025 was quieter. YG organized the online “9 Years in a BLINK” participation event, asking fans to share nine photographs and memories from their years with BLACKPINK. Twenty winners received unreleased photo card sets. BLACKPINK also released an official anniversary video.
By then, however, BLACKPINK occupied a fundamentally different position than during their earlier years.
Jennie, Lisa, Jisoo and Rosé had established separate structures for their individual careers after renewing with YG only for group activities. BLACKPINK remained together, but YG no longer controlled the entirety of each member’s professional calendar.
This May No Longer Be Entirely a YG Problem
For years, blaming YG for BLACKPINK’s limited activities has been practically a BLINK tradition.
And there are legitimate reasons for criticizing the company this time. A 10th anniversary does not sneak up on anyone. BLACKPINK’s debut date has been August 8, 2016 since, well, August 8, 2016. YG has had approximately a decade to locate August 8, 2026 on a calendar.
A milestone this significant should not appear to require emergency schedule negotiations 48 hours before the celebration.
But Dispatch’s reporting complicates the familiar story of YG simply refusing to give BLACKPINK and their fans what they want.
According to the outlet, YG had attempted to develop anniversary plans for some time, but coordinating those plans with the members proved difficult. Dispatch specifically reported problems with YG’s planning and member cooperation.
BLACKPINK’s current structure is very different from the traditional idol model.
YG controls BLACKPINK’s group activities and IP, but it does not control the members’ individual careers in the way it once did. Each woman has extensive solo music, acting, fashion, business and international commitments. YG cannot simply clear four calendars that it does not control.
That does not absolve the company of responsibility. Coordinating four extraordinarily busy artists is precisely the kind of logistical challenge management exists to solve, particularly for an anniversary known years in advance.
But it does suggest that the disappointing celebration may be the result of something more complicated than the old “YG locked BLACKPINK in the dungeon” explanation.
BLACKPINK may have reached the stage of their career where keeping the group alive requires four independently successful stars to repeatedly decide that BLACKPINK deserves space on their individual calendars.
And That May Be the Real Story of BLACKPINK at 10
There is an uncomfortable irony here.
BLACKPINK’s individual success is one of the greatest achievements of the group’s first decade. Jennie, Jisoo, Rosé and Lisa have each become powerful brands capable of sustaining careers beyond BLACKPINK.
That independence also makes BLACKPINK considerably harder to operate.
The group can still sell stadiums. It can still generate enormous attention whenever the four members appear together. BLACKPINK remains an extraordinarily valuable name.
But an IP cannot attend a fan meeting.
People have to.
That is essentially the problem one industry source identified to Dispatch: YG can hold the BLACKPINK group rights, but ultimately the artists themselves have to participate. The source criticized YG’s leadership while also arguing that the members prioritized individual activities, leaving fans with the consequences.
And there may be considerably more at stake than one badly organized birthday party.
Dispatch reports that BLACKPINK’s group contract with YG is approaching expiration and that substantive renewal negotiations have not yet begun, raising the possibility that the anniversary controversy could become another factor in those discussions.
For now, BLACKPINK will reach 10 years on August 8 with all four members reportedly attending the small Seoul event.
That is ultimately what many BLINKs wanted: BLACKPINK together.
The frustration comes from the fact that after 10 years of helping turn four young idols into one of the biggest girl groups on Earth, fans expected their decade together to feel like a milestone rather than a scheduling emergency.
BLACKPINK made it to 10.
Somehow, the anniversary planning barely made it to August 8.
