[Fanaccount] Kpop Music Fest Sydney 2011 (Part 1)
Part 2 | TVXQ only version
This is reeeally long so if it's too tl:dr then skip sections - I've tried to label them so you can scroll over stuff (sorry it's so long but it's my blog and I want to preserve the memories =') ..) I've talked about ppl but I've either used their Internet aliases or made up names for them. Part 2 is pic and fancam heavy and taking me a while so I will post it later =)
Friday
International Airport: So I arrived at the airport on Friday morning and I was kicking myself cos I actually got in at the domestic airport at 7am thinking - with the info I received - that TVXQ wouldn't be in until about 8:20. Unfortunately it was 4am my time - I was tired, hungry and only had 4 hrs sleep so I got breakfast before heading to the international airport. My mistake. Turns out they had come through 8.20 and I was 10 mins late D= As it was I only saw Sistar and Kara come through. Actually I didn't see Sistar, they were too fast. But I caught Kara on camera:
Click on thumb to large version.
Good shot considering I was shooting over heads but disappointed in that Kara is my least fav of the 12 bands in Sydney. The girls in front of me at the railing were cute tho; big Kara fans. With posters and stuff. BTW Kara were TINY. I'm jelly of Momo tho, she got a fancam of Yunho.
The rest of the day: friends and family stuff (unrelated to kpop): So then it was time to meet Kata and Bell in the city and we spent the day at arcades and mucking about in and around China Town. Maaan I haven't been to Sydney in so long, I'd forgotten how different it is to Perth - old buildings amongst new and such an amazing array of awful smells lol - sry2say but Sydney smells weird. It's a great place tho, so much to see and so many different kinds of people with individual fashion sense. The trains are huge metal scary things that spend a large amount of time underground. Then in the avo I met up with Mum at the hotel - she had driven in from Canberra - and we went out for dinner and then went to the stage production of Mary Poppins. A great musical, really well done, and nostalgic for me. I cried during 'Feed the birds... Tuppence a bag...'
Saturday - Before Concert
So Saturday! I had nothing better to do so I rocked up at the VIP Standing line at 10:30am. Lena came in about an hour later and we had some trouble with her ticket - long story short she had sitting but had won VIP Standing but JK Entertainment had yet to get them to her (more on event organisation later). We made some friends in the line who I ended up hanging with the entire concert - I think we might have been the loud, obnoxious group IDK so much fucking fun tho.
Can you see me? LOL. I'm in the black top.
Merchandise: So ofc we waited in the line the whole day in the hot sun. Lena ended up leaving us at this point to go site seeing. Because there were 5 of us we could take it in turns to go out to the fest itself and check out the tents - not a lot going on really imo - mostly I just went out for shade, water and toilet. No merchandise either >=( JK Ent provided pre-ordered kpop cheer packs which I wasn't interested in, anyway they'd sold out. Only TVXQAustralia had merch which I had already pre-ordered, but they also had glow sticks on the day so I bought a bunch of those too. SHINee fanclub were also handing out yellow banners but I didn't get one till after the concert - a friend of a friend gave me her Jonghyun one. (It seemed the girls handing them out took one look at my TVXQ t-shirt and towel and changed direction lol. Wae? I like SHINee too.) Also some fans had TVXQ postcards and were giving them out - KYHD and 3 x TONE album cover printed post cards. My TVXQ cheer pack came with light stick, t-shirt and towel, plus stickers and raffle tickets and a pic of db5k... in other words: Cassiopeians, well done! The most organised fangroup there hands down. If there was a fanmeet at 3.30pm as scheduled unfortunately I couldn't make it - more on 3:30pm events later. Oh, and PopAsia had free hats.
Organisation: cc9095 asked me to take note of pros and cons of event organisation, so: As I said earlier, my friend Lena had won VIP Standing tix. Great, however we couldn't get our hands on the actual things and JK weren't very responsive through email or over the phone. We asked some JK staff and a girl said check back in 1/2 hour when the boss comes or smth - she also mentioned that there had been multiple enquiries so >=( On the plus side JK's website for the event was really good - had lots of easy to access info, and their FB page was always being updated so no probs there. On the day however - this may be ANZ stadium and not JK - security at the front of the line told someone they were opening the gate at 12:30pm so ofc everyone (we were all sitting down chatting) surged up and pushed to the front. JK site had said gates wouldn't open till 5 - so I was annoyed - cos then ofc we had to sit down again but instead of the nice long, spaced out leisurely line we had moments ago we were now all sitting on the ground, squashed, pressed together like sardines boiling in a pot - cos ofc it was midday and the sun was blaring (and what happened to the previous forecast of rain??) Later in the day a security guard said 4pm gates open so everyone surges again - so we're standing there for an hour longer than necessary. JK's website had made it clear that gates opened at 5 on the dot - and lo and behold gates opened at 5 on the dot. Apart form that, and the fact that my friends were complaining that the only glowsticks available were red ones LOL organisation was pretty smooth. Security were ruthless as they needed to be.
The line - 3:30pm: It's at this point that we're in the line near the front and squashed in the middle width-wise (it was a v. wide line) and there was no way of getting out then back in at this point. Unfortunately I hadn't anticipated this so I had msged Momo far too late and we didn't get to meet at all. I really wanted to take a pic with at least one hominfatale.net girlfriend =< Luckily I had just gone to the toilet not long before, which is good, cos once ur in that line and you can't move - you really, really can't move. You have the choice of holding on, losing your spot or wetting your pants. What's more I just knew homin would perform last (which they did). At some point as well there was some guy looking out the window of the stadium, on his iphone just staring down at us for ages, so we all waved lol. He didn't really do anything so some of us gave him the finger lol cuz apparently VIP Standing 2 line are a bunch of trolls. Then he waved and we all waved back and cheered and he filmed us with his phone.
Outside the line
The VIP Standing line
So 5pm and the gates open and there's a massive surge ofc. I have bruises on my legs where I got shoved into the tables. Bags checked, tix scanned, long winding corridor and everyone is running and running. The girl in front of me fell over D= I was so scared she was gonna get trampled so I grabbed her under the arms, holed her up and got her to walk fast but it was a struggle: she was in pain and crying, her knees were covered in blue bruises. Just as her mate came to take my place to help her along I dropped my TVXQ towel D= but luckily the fanboy behind me snatched it up and passed it along, relay style.
Stadium: I had lost my mates at the initial surge but found them at the railing almost straight away. Dan, Kay and Nat were at the railing and as previously discussed in the line Jay and I would stand behind like a wall - cos we're tall and fit lol. So now it was another 2 hours wait where they played ads on the screens and we took it in turns to sit down. While I was on the ground amongst the sea of legs I met a New Zealand guy down there lol and we had the usual chat about biases etc.
(BTW I have to say, it was fantastic being w/ fans - you could mention stuff like 2min or DBSK wank or eatyourkimchi and ppl knew what you were talking about. I see now why ppl love cosplaying and HP conventions and stuff - it's an incredible feeling to experience your fandom in this way. ofc to outsiders you look like a geek or a koreaboo or whatever, but at events like these all that stigma flies out the window.)
So we had a great view, from the side but the bands were so close to us. I'm so happy I got standing tix tbh. I could see their faces and expressions right there in person. Except for 2AM cos they stayed at stage 2, but I could see they backs of their heads lol. Jay, who hadn't spoken for hours suddenly blurted out, "I'm gonna scream like a girl." I know the feeling. Being in standing squashed amongst other fans and feeling the anticipation - it's euphoric, I was on a natural high.
Part 2 | TVXQ only version
This is reeeally long so if it's too tl:dr then skip sections - I've tried to label them so you can scroll over stuff (sorry it's so long but it's my blog and I want to preserve the memories =') ..) I've talked about ppl but I've either used their Internet aliases or made up names for them. Part 2 is pic and fancam heavy and taking me a while so I will post it later =)
Friday
International Airport: So I arrived at the airport on Friday morning and I was kicking myself cos I actually got in at the domestic airport at 7am thinking - with the info I received - that TVXQ wouldn't be in until about 8:20. Unfortunately it was 4am my time - I was tired, hungry and only had 4 hrs sleep so I got breakfast before heading to the international airport. My mistake. Turns out they had come through 8.20 and I was 10 mins late D= As it was I only saw Sistar and Kara come through. Actually I didn't see Sistar, they were too fast. But I caught Kara on camera:
Click on thumb to large version.
Good shot considering I was shooting over heads but disappointed in that Kara is my least fav of the 12 bands in Sydney. The girls in front of me at the railing were cute tho; big Kara fans. With posters and stuff. BTW Kara were TINY. I'm jelly of Momo tho, she got a fancam of Yunho.
The rest of the day: friends and family stuff (unrelated to kpop): So then it was time to meet Kata and Bell in the city and we spent the day at arcades and mucking about in and around China Town. Maaan I haven't been to Sydney in so long, I'd forgotten how different it is to Perth - old buildings amongst new and such an amazing array of awful smells lol - sry2say but Sydney smells weird. It's a great place tho, so much to see and so many different kinds of people with individual fashion sense. The trains are huge metal scary things that spend a large amount of time underground. Then in the avo I met up with Mum at the hotel - she had driven in from Canberra - and we went out for dinner and then went to the stage production of Mary Poppins. A great musical, really well done, and nostalgic for me. I cried during 'Feed the birds... Tuppence a bag...'
Saturday - Before Concert
So Saturday! I had nothing better to do so I rocked up at the VIP Standing line at 10:30am. Lena came in about an hour later and we had some trouble with her ticket - long story short she had sitting but had won VIP Standing but JK Entertainment had yet to get them to her (more on event organisation later). We made some friends in the line who I ended up hanging with the entire concert - I think we might have been the loud, obnoxious group IDK so much fucking fun tho.
Can you see me? LOL. I'm in the black top.
Merchandise: So ofc we waited in the line the whole day in the hot sun. Lena ended up leaving us at this point to go site seeing. Because there were 5 of us we could take it in turns to go out to the fest itself and check out the tents - not a lot going on really imo - mostly I just went out for shade, water and toilet. No merchandise either >=( JK Ent provided pre-ordered kpop cheer packs which I wasn't interested in, anyway they'd sold out. Only TVXQAustralia had merch which I had already pre-ordered, but they also had glow sticks on the day so I bought a bunch of those too. SHINee fanclub were also handing out yellow banners but I didn't get one till after the concert - a friend of a friend gave me her Jonghyun one. (It seemed the girls handing them out took one look at my TVXQ t-shirt and towel and changed direction lol. Wae? I like SHINee too.) Also some fans had TVXQ postcards and were giving them out - KYHD and 3 x TONE album cover printed post cards. My TVXQ cheer pack came with light stick, t-shirt and towel, plus stickers and raffle tickets and a pic of db5k... in other words: Cassiopeians, well done! The most organised fangroup there hands down. If there was a fanmeet at 3.30pm as scheduled unfortunately I couldn't make it - more on 3:30pm events later. Oh, and PopAsia had free hats.
Organisation: cc9095 asked me to take note of pros and cons of event organisation, so: As I said earlier, my friend Lena had won VIP Standing tix. Great, however we couldn't get our hands on the actual things and JK weren't very responsive through email or over the phone. We asked some JK staff and a girl said check back in 1/2 hour when the boss comes or smth - she also mentioned that there had been multiple enquiries so >=( On the plus side JK's website for the event was really good - had lots of easy to access info, and their FB page was always being updated so no probs there. On the day however - this may be ANZ stadium and not JK - security at the front of the line told someone they were opening the gate at 12:30pm so ofc everyone (we were all sitting down chatting) surged up and pushed to the front. JK site had said gates wouldn't open till 5 - so I was annoyed - cos then ofc we had to sit down again but instead of the nice long, spaced out leisurely line we had moments ago we were now all sitting on the ground, squashed, pressed together like sardines boiling in a pot - cos ofc it was midday and the sun was blaring (and what happened to the previous forecast of rain??) Later in the day a security guard said 4pm gates open so everyone surges again - so we're standing there for an hour longer than necessary. JK's website had made it clear that gates opened at 5 on the dot - and lo and behold gates opened at 5 on the dot. Apart form that, and the fact that my friends were complaining that the only glowsticks available were red ones LOL organisation was pretty smooth. Security were ruthless as they needed to be.
The line - 3:30pm: It's at this point that we're in the line near the front and squashed in the middle width-wise (it was a v. wide line) and there was no way of getting out then back in at this point. Unfortunately I hadn't anticipated this so I had msged Momo far too late and we didn't get to meet at all. I really wanted to take a pic with at least one hominfatale.net girlfriend =< Luckily I had just gone to the toilet not long before, which is good, cos once ur in that line and you can't move - you really, really can't move. You have the choice of holding on, losing your spot or wetting your pants. What's more I just knew homin would perform last (which they did). At some point as well there was some guy looking out the window of the stadium, on his iphone just staring down at us for ages, so we all waved lol. He didn't really do anything so some of us gave him the finger lol cuz apparently VIP Standing 2 line are a bunch of trolls. Then he waved and we all waved back and cheered and he filmed us with his phone.
Outside the line
The VIP Standing line
So 5pm and the gates open and there's a massive surge ofc. I have bruises on my legs where I got shoved into the tables. Bags checked, tix scanned, long winding corridor and everyone is running and running. The girl in front of me fell over D= I was so scared she was gonna get trampled so I grabbed her under the arms, holed her up and got her to walk fast but it was a struggle: she was in pain and crying, her knees were covered in blue bruises. Just as her mate came to take my place to help her along I dropped my TVXQ towel D= but luckily the fanboy behind me snatched it up and passed it along, relay style.
Stadium: I had lost my mates at the initial surge but found them at the railing almost straight away. Dan, Kay and Nat were at the railing and as previously discussed in the line Jay and I would stand behind like a wall - cos we're tall and fit lol. So now it was another 2 hours wait where they played ads on the screens and we took it in turns to sit down. While I was on the ground amongst the sea of legs I met a New Zealand guy down there lol and we had the usual chat about biases etc.
(BTW I have to say, it was fantastic being w/ fans - you could mention stuff like 2min or DBSK wank or eatyourkimchi and ppl knew what you were talking about. I see now why ppl love cosplaying and HP conventions and stuff - it's an incredible feeling to experience your fandom in this way. ofc to outsiders you look like a geek or a koreaboo or whatever, but at events like these all that stigma flies out the window.)
So we had a great view, from the side but the bands were so close to us. I'm so happy I got standing tix tbh. I could see their faces and expressions right there in person. Except for 2AM cos they stayed at stage 2, but I could see they backs of their heads lol. Jay, who hadn't spoken for hours suddenly blurted out, "I'm gonna scream like a girl." I know the feeling. Being in standing squashed amongst other fans and feeling the anticipation - it's euphoric, I was on a natural high.
Part 2 | TVXQ only version