Girl group Rescene performs at the Cheorwon Hwagang Freshwater Snail Festival in Cheorwon on July 31, 2025. (Cheorwon County) Local festivals in Korea rarely attract national attention, but Cheorwon in Gangwon Province is in the spotlight after it was revealed that both BTS and the rising girl group Rescene performed there before achieving major success."The groups that once performed on our stages have become such major stars that inviting them back now would be difficult," a Cheorwon county official reportedly said Sunday.Interest in Cheorwon's festivals has grown after videos of Rescene's performance at last year's Cheorwon Hwagang Freshwater Snail Festival went viral amid the group's recent surge in popularity.At the festival, Rescene performed five songs over 30 minutes, including their then-new comeback track "Deja Vu" and "Love Attack," which has recently returned to the music charts. BTS performs at the Taebong Festival in Cheorwon on October 10, 2014. (Cheorwon County) Many viewers were surprised by the enthusiastic audience response, given the group's relative obscurity at the time."The crowd must have been so enthusiastic thanks to all the soldiers in Cheorwon," one comment read."I was actually there, and they really gave it their all," another commenter wrote. "The response was incredible."Rescene is not the only act to have performed in Cheorwon before achieving stardom.BTS, now a global phenomenon, performed in Cheorwon 12 years ago.The group performed at the Taebong Festival, an annual event held each autumn in the county.