Red Velvet will release the summer mini album Velvet Summer on Monday, August 3, 2026 at 6 p.m. KST, according to SM Entertainment. The five-track record is led by “Surfin’ Boy” and marks the group’s first full-group release since Cosmic in June 2024.
For overseas fans, there are two separate deadlines to track: Weverse Global preorders close August 2 at 11:59 p.m. KST, while the music becomes available the following day. The album release date and a retailer’s delivery date are not necessarily the same.
What is confirmed
| Detail | Official information |
|---|---|
| Album | Velvet Summer |
| Release | August 3, 2026 at 6 p.m. KST |
| Format | Summer mini album, five tracks |
| Title track | “Surfin’ Boy” |
| Weverse preorder deadline | August 2, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. KST |
| Physical release and dispatch | August 3, subject to store and destination |
File photo: Red Velvet at KCON Japan on May 11, 2024. This is not album artwork or a photo from the current promotion. Photo by TV10, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0. Cropped responsively by Seoul Current.
“Surfin’ Boy” leads a five-song mini album
SM has confirmed the album length and title track, but the release notice does not publish a complete song-by-song credit list. That distinction matters: the title, date, track count and lead single are official, while detailed credits and later promotion schedules should be checked against their own notices.
The agency describes this as Red Velvet’s first full-group album in roughly two years and two months, following Cosmic. References to earlier summer singles such as “Red Flavor,” “Power Up,” “Umpah Umpah” and “Queendom” are context from SM’s announcement, not a promise that the new title track will copy those records.
Preordering from outside Korea
Weverse Global lists two physical configurations: Big Wave and High Tide. The notice also sets purchase limits and warns that random components are distributed at equal probability.
Before paying, check:
- whether the listing is a random version or a set;
- the shipping currency and accepted payment method for your region;
- whether local customs charges are included;
- the address language required for your destination; and
- whether “release date” means dispatch begins that day.
The Weverse notice says global shipping is available. It also states that inventory can close early, so August 2 is a deadline rather than a stock guarantee.
The Seoul fan-con stream comes first
Red Velvet’s A Day in Red & Velvet fan-con takes place at Korea University’s Hwajeong Gymnasium on August 1–2. The August 2 show is scheduled to stream live at 4 p.m. KST through Weverse and Beyond LIVE.
A delayed stream is scheduled for Wednesday, August 5 at 8 a.m. KST. The official notice describes the live and delayed broadcasts as one package. It does not advertise an open-ended video-on-demand replay, so fans should treat the delayed date as a fixed viewing window and check the ticket page for device and subtitle conditions.
What remains unconfirmed
The official sources checked on July 28 confirm the album title, release time, five-song length, title track, preorder window and fan-con stream. They do not, in the notices cited here, confirm every track credit, a complete music-show schedule or territory-by-territory streaming availability.
Those details can change or appear in later posts. Use SM, Red Velvet’s official channels, Weverse and your music service’s local page as the final references rather than unofficial schedule graphics.
As of this update: the release has already happened
At the time this article was first published, August 3 was still an upcoming date. As of this update on August 7, the release date, preorder deadline and fan-con livestream described above have all already passed. This guide is kept published as an accurate record of what SM confirmed ahead of release — the release date, track count, title track and preorder mechanics — rather than as a forward-looking schedule. If you are reading this after August 3 looking for the album, search “Red Velvet Velvet Summer” directly inside your music service; the confirmed facts above (five tracks, “Surfin’ Boy” as the title track) remain accurate regardless of when you are reading this.
Why the fan-con sold out immediately, and what that does and does not tell you
SM’s own release framing noted that the A Day in Red & Velvet fan-con at Korea University’s Hwajeong Gymnasium sold out immediately upon going on sale. That is a genuine, sourced data point about ticket demand for the in-person show, and it is reasonable context for why the livestream option mattered so much to fans who could not attend in person — the August 2 stream was, for most of the group’s overseas fanbase, the only realistic way to see the pre-release performance live at all.
What an immediate sellout does not tell you is anything about first-week album sales, chart position or streaming numbers, which are separate metrics measured differently and reported on their own timeline. Concert demand and album commercial performance are correlated in a loose, general sense — an artist popular enough to sell out a venue instantly is generally also positioned to sell records — but one is not a substitute figure for the other, and this guide does not convert one into an estimate of the other.
Preorders opened well before the album’s own release
SM’s release framing states that physical preorders for Velvet Summer opened July 6, 2026 — nearly a month before the August 3 release and about four weeks ahead of the August 2 Weverse Global preorder deadline referenced earlier in this guide. That gap is normal for Korean physical album preorders generally: manufacturing, packaging and international shipping for a physical CD or photobook release take real lead time, so labels typically open ordering well ahead of the digital release date specifically so overseas fans who want a same-day or near-same-day delivery have enough of a window to order early. A late preorder does not automatically mean a late delivery, but it does generally mean a later position in the shipping queue.
Quick questions
Is Velvet Summer still available for preorder? As of this update, both the July 6 preorder opening and the August 2 preorder deadline referenced in the original SM and Weverse notices have passed. Check Weverse Shop or your regional retailer directly for whatever preorder or restock status currently applies.
Did the sold-out fan-con affect the livestream? No connection between venue capacity and livestream access is described in the sources here — the livestream was a separate ticketed product from in-person attendance, intended specifically to reach fans who could not get or use a venue seat.
Is “Velvet Summer” Red Velvet’s first release since Cosmic? According to SM’s own framing, yes for a full-group release — it is described as the group’s first full-group album in roughly two years and two months since 2024’s Cosmic.
