‘Follow the white rabbit” beckons the title screen as we await the arrival of one of the most popular K-pop girl groups of the past decade, Red Velvet – or rather, follow the girl in the frou-frou dress and baby-pink platform heels. A sea of waving lightsticks, the must-have fandom accessory, illuminates the way into wonderland.
Despite having amassed hundreds of millions of streams across three albums since their formation in 2014, Red Velvet have never had a UK chart hit and have only performed in London once before. Yet tonight, nothing is lost in translation. What sets the group apart, and how they have endured for almost a decade, is a dual concept: their “red” side offers delicious pop confections with helpings of funk; their “velvet” side embraces maturity, vulnerability and hip-hop experimentalism.
