EPTApparently it's a pretty big deal... Top musicians from all over Asia come to perform... best of all?
It's free.
However, free concerts with appearances by groups and artists like 이승기 (Lee Seunggi), BEAST, Super Junior, U-KISS, SNSD, G.NA, miss A and the like means... crazy amounts of people.
I don't want this to be too long, so I'll try to keep most of the unimportant parts brief. We'll see how well that works.
I went with a bunch of Americans, and we were just getting back from the DMZ and NK border at around 11pm. There was a train to go back at 12 midnight, or 6 in the morning. We all figured there would be an insane line of fangirls already camped out, and the tickets were first come first serve, so we decided to just go at midnight and wait until the ticket place opened at noon. This would mean we'd probably get little to no sleep, but to me, the chance to see SNSD live would totally be worth it. (Or at least I hoped)
So we got to the stadium and it wasn't too cold, I already had a long-sleeve and just threw a hoodie over it, and we found the ticket area rather empty. There were 2 Korean girls there and we later met these 2 teachers, one from Canada and the other from Cali. The Canadian was fluent in Korean and would later help us A LOT. We had to take a taxi to a PC bang and print out our tickets, so we did that, and grabbed some food. After we got back to the stadium at around 6am, it got bitching cold. I already had cold clothes but a lot of my friends didn't so I gave one my cardigan to use as a scarf and another an extra shirt that I had. The next few hours consisted of us sitting or lying on the floor, trying to sleep or just talking. It was very boring, and I was really tired but couldn't sleep. We got coffee at one point and it was really gross, but we all loved it because it was warm. This one guy came around and sold blankets for $5. We all bought one. Soooo warm. He would eventually reappear to sell people in line random shit.
Fast forward to about 10:30 am, and people start showing up. We're lined up by our ticket sections. A, B, C+D, and R. R were floor seats, then A up high, followed by B, C, and D behind them. I had C tickets, meaning we had pretty shitty seats. I wandered to the R people and asked how they got them, and they said they signed up a few days before. I had C tickets and signed up a good 3-4 weeks before. WTF. An explanation I was given was that they sell the outside tickets first and save the good tickets for later... Which makes absolutely no sense, but I couldn't really do anything about it. Anyway, I'm in C with the two other teachers and my friends are in B. Not too big of a deal. But the difference was in the people waiting in line. At around 11pm, A had maybe 200 people lined up, B had around 50.. and C? We had... 3. The same three as in 3 in the morning. We did not have to pull an all-nighter. T.T Eventually people came in the booths to give us our tickets, and the Korean from Canada told them that we signed up really early but got shitty seats and it wasn't fair. He said it's all luck, but he'll ask. Eventually something happened and all of the C seats got switched to A. I don't know how it happened but I was really happy. UPGRADE.
Anyway, after getting my A ticket and making all my friends in B jealous, another wait began. We got our tickets and around 12:40, but they weren't opening the stadium until 3pm. Mostly all the happenings here were really boring until around 1:30pm. They had everyone gather and then had these big signs and had us all line up by ticket number. Mine was A29. So there were masses of people lined up behind their signs and we were all just waiting. Apparently we couldn't actually go in until 3, so we all just sat down and waited. Next comes the shitstorm.
We had to form in lines of 5, so we could go in the gate and sit down in an orderly fashion. Now this already doesn't work, because people go to the bathroom, and move around to see their friends. But when you have rebellious, selfish people who make their own lines, it gets worse. we eventually made some semblance of an organized block with 5 lines, and then they decided to move the sign a little bit back. BIG MISTAKE. When the sign moves, people thought we were going in, so all of a sudden, a huge surge or people push forward. Lines are officially gone to shit. They tell us to stop, and then take another 45 minutes deciding how they are going to fix our lines. (Which would've never happened) I observe other groups going in, and it starts out nicely, but once they start moving, everyone just races to the front anyway. So eventually we start moving and as expected crazy Asian fangirls are pushing to the front and screaming. Everyone is running, and I'm trying to just stay in my spot in line, but everyone is shouting to run to the front and make new lines and shit. As we go into the stadium we make some kind of U-turn as we headed in the wrong direction. Do you know what happens when you try to U turn a bunch of crazed fangirls? The people following in the end of the U jump and rush to the front. It got really crazy, and then to make it worse... we had to go down stairs. The door to the stairwell is maybe 4 feet wide. There are hundreds of people pushing you through the doorway and down the stairs. I looked at the surging mob and thought I was going to die if I went down the stairs.
Turns out it wasn't too bad, but people were still rushing down the stairs and being crazy, eventually we were lead to our seats... guess what? millions of seats open. Why people decided to get all ape-shit and push and rush is beyond me. They were pretty shitty seats anyway, I could tell from there you couldn't see much anyway. I looked down to the floor seats and saw that they had REALLY good seats. The security wasn't very tight, and I made a spur of the moment decision that I would get a floor seat. Even though my ticket said A and not R. I examined the entrance to there, and where I was, and decided I needed to go down. I traced my way back to the stairwell of death, and went down another flight. It came out to the tunnel of the stadium, and I followed some girls in. As I was heading through a security lady told me to stop. I didn't know what to do, but I couldn't turn back now. I looked around and saw that there were bathrooms in the other direction, so I said sorry, and just walked to the bathrooms. To explain it was kind of like a +. The left was the stairs, back was the bathrooms and forward were the floor seats. I wandered around the bathroom, then after a minute or so just walked in. Wow. It was amazing, SO much closer, you could see everything. I could really choose any seat I wanted, because I didn't belong anyway, but didn't want to get greedy and get busted. So I went to some seats near the middle-back. and waited. After just waiting I scooted up some more and just waited. I could tell some other people snuck down because of they way they were acting, haha. But as I waited, more people came in, and eventually the staff started checking tickets in random blocks. I got pretty nervous, but decided the worse that would happen is I would get sent back to my seat.
There was a white guy in front of my, and I decided to talk to him a little to look less conspicuous. Turns out he's from Hawaii too, and is in Daegu working for the US government. Cool. Anyway, As the wait went on, staff members would check tickets to kick people out to make room for people who actually had tickets but couldn't sit. Every time they checked they would find someone to kick out before they got to me, luckily. A black family came and sat behind and I talked to them too. They were in the military, and from all over the US. Every time some ticket holder would come and the staff would kick people out, the Americans around me would comment about finding all of the sneaky people and kicking them out. I joined them and said "Yeah, kick'em out!" (had to act yo) I figured once the concert started they wouldn't check tickets anymore. I was wrong. the concert started and after Rania started performing someone came around and talked to the staff member. Then the staff member came right in front of me and started checking tickets. Luckily the Rania song JUST ended so going to the bathroom wouldn't be as suspicious. I told the American guy to watch my seat as I ran off to the bathroom. I actually had to pee because I was so nervous, and came back after relieving myself. A bunch of newer K-pop groups performed afterwards, but I couldn't really enjoy it because I was so nervous. After that they didn't really check tickets so I started to relax.
Then the big dogs came on. miss A did really well. U-Kiss. They rocked the house. Possibly the second best performance of the night. Everyone was screaming super loud, and everyone got really into it. G.NA with her good English and sexy dancing. Everyone was pretty good, but I was just waiting for SNSD. Some Chinese singers came up and the Chinese fans went NUTS. Then BEAST came and the dedicated fangirl section WENT WILD. They were screaming the WHOLE time and waving their glowsticks, it was pretty incredible. Seunggi came up and everyone went crazyyy. Especially the Korean moms and old ladies. They love him. The MC asked him to wink and he did and I swear at least 500 old ladies came simultaneously. Then some J-pop bands performed and did OK, but they were too loud for me. A Thai singer lady performed... sorry Thai people. She sucked. She sang some songs in English, that were like American pop melodies (I've heard the melody before) but the words were different, and she sucked at dancing. But other than her, everyone else was REALLY good. Still waiting for my girls, and then it started raining. I knew they were up soon, because there were only 3 groups left. Perfume, Super Junior, and SNSD. Then it started raining.. HARD. Pouring. People started running out of the R area because there was no cover, and ran back into the A and B sections. Some people had umbrellas but most didn't Some were buying ponchos from people selling them for a dollar. They probably could've sold for 2 or 3 and made a fortune. I had no cash on me, so I just used a blanket that they gave out, and it worked pretty well. I didn't mind getting soaked to see SNSD. Though I probably would've gotten hypothermia. As we're waiting for the rain to stop, the MCs announce that Super Junior and SNSD are waiting for the rain to stop too. The crowds go CRAZY, and the rain eventually stops. They start wiping the stage furiously and then Perfume comes on. J-pop, meh. Just waiting for my girls. I really hoped that SNSD came on before SJ because I didn't want to wait any longer and could leave after SNSD. Then they walked out... EVERYONE screamed and went nuts. There was a little technical error in the beginning with the background video but other than that, the performance of Run Devil Run couldn't have been more perfect. After it rained everyone kind of booked it, so I took the opportunity to get a better seat. I wasn't super close, but close enough to get a nice picture with the help of my 16x zoom camera. My camera battery was almost dead, so I couldn't take pictures of any other groups. I saved the last of my battery for the girls. I started taking pictures, and I got chills everytime they moved. It was SO surreal. They looked so hot dancing and everything, it was completely worth it. Then they started dancing Hoot. I decided to take a video even though it would kill my camera. After that... they did Gee. And the crowds went even more crazy. Everyone there knew the song and sang along. I was too focused trying to keep my camera still and get a good video. With the pictures and videos and memories that I got... it was totally worth it. Completely worth everything.
Here are some pics and the video I got:
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/s720x720/302561_10150346245788481_504148480_8120722_1914897057_n.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/304111_10150346245948481_504148480_8120724_1754328417_n.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/320115_10150346246103481_504148480_8120728_1547227383_n.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/296707_10150346246238481_504148480_8120731_557721054_n.jpg)
One of my favs:
![[image loading]](http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/301418_10150346246393481_504148480_8120734_1279563105_n.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/s720x720/292001_10150346246483481_504148480_8120735_595917929_n.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/s720x720/312148_10150346246728481_504148480_8120739_1756862479_n.jpg)
The video: (I don't know if the link will work)
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150346232888481
[Click HD, it's a lot better, not the quality on my camera, but still better]
Turns out... that was really long. Sorry. Thank to anyone who actually read it! It's a little bit of the Asian fan culture, etc.
Oh update on my training for Code A: I'm still diamond, trying to get my MMR up for the new season. I'm currently 34-25 which isn't too bad, but I'm aiming to get it to a 2-1 ratio. My PvP got really good after watching incontrol and stealing one of his builds and toying with it. My PvZ was really shitty, and I felt super confused, but right now it's OK. I think PvT is my strongest at the moment, but we'll see when I start hitting more 1-1-1s. I'll probably be playing pretty hardcore for the next couple days since I took my only midterm today. (Korean, and aced it kapow)
Thanks for everyone's support! <3
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