I couldn’t sleep… but I wasn’t excited… I was just thinking about what will happen on the day itself.
The clock had reset itself for the new day, but I couldn’t sleep and I had to practice some fan chants to gear myself up later when the dream would finally turn into reality. After thirty minutes, I told myself, “I got to sleep, so I would have enough energy later.” At nine hundred, I woke up, brought my laptop into life, prepared my brunch, and then listened to the songs I might probably hear later. While chewing my food down, I uttered the fan chants whenever they are needed, sometimes I would find myself singing along to the song. An hour before I left my place, I started fixing myself, checking if everything was all in their right places especially those pieces of paper which for one month long I shed my tears, and then I bid my farewell to my pet dog, Andi, because he won’t be seeing me for the rest of the day. I was kind of in a hurry already, because I told my friends I’m going to be at the venue after lunch, unfortunately I wasn’t able to get there at my promise time of arrival due to traffic. Thirty minutes before I arrived at the venue, my friend (H) texted me that she was already there while my other friend (J) had just left her place.
I finally arrived. I saw a lot of people which I’m sure were going to where I was also heading because most of them were wearing tees with the name of their biases. And then I saw H waving at me. There was already a big crowd in front of us, filing up on lines. A few minutes later, we found our line. J had also arrived with our food, and then stood there for a few hours. While waiting we heard a boy group rehearsed their songs. When the gate started to open three hours after their promised time, the line that we were following suddenly disappeared. People were all running towards the gate, but the people in front of the line tried to shun those who tried to take their places, so the ramble between all of us started as we tried to get in line, and especially when some ladies who didn't have staff identity cards told us to divide into two lines and let the other line get in first. Actually, my friends and I were trying not to get involved with those, until a middle-age woman started to cut us from the line that we were following and let several ladies get into line, it would have been okay if they were only two or three, but we were outnumbered, so I started to make parinig, which I was sure they have all heard, because they were all so quiet. Then the line started to move as one by one went inside the hall.
It was an hour before the event to kick-off, but like every show,
there was always a front act, it was Mike Chan and his band. He sang a few pop songs, but everybody was eager to see their favorite groups. When Mike Chan’s stage was over, the fans started screaming out loud, there was even a display of fireworks from somewhere else nearby the venue, a nice opening for the main event, although it’s not really part of the program. The emcee showed up on stage, introducing the show and what was in stored for all of the fans throughout the event. Then finally, “It’s Showtime!” The first group to perform was Infinite, followed by U-Kiss, Tasty, Tahiti, EXO, and then the most awaited girl group, that all Filipino Sones thought would never come and hold a concert to this land called Phillipines, So Nyuh Shi Dae or also known as Girls’ Generation! But before their performance, each stage was enjoyed also, though sometimes fans would chant or scream “Bring the Girls out!!”. The unfamiliar girl group, Tahiti, gave their best performance even though they weren't able to receive loudest screams of the night. Infinite and the rookie male group, Tasty, also showed great performances in spite some technical problems. U-kiss, who was second timers already, charmed their Filipino fans with what they have learned from their first experience. EXO, a group of 12 males divided into two subgroups, EXO-K and EXO-M, amazed their fans with their amazing vocals by singing ‘Open Arms’ and their own rendition of a Filipino song, ‘Hawak Kamay’, and of course all their title songs. After these five Korean groups, it’s now the turn of our nine goddesses from GIRLS’ GENERATION. They sang their famous songs from Tell Me You Wish (Genie) to Hoot, The Boys, Dancing Queen, Gee, and the song they currently promoting in Korea, I Got a Boy. Every song was cheered and sang along with by all the fans, actually, there are fan chants to those songs (lines of it), but what I heard was loud singing chants instead, that I wasn't able to hear the Girls. I was happy to finally hear them live but I didn't enjoyed it much because I didn't get to see them up close, but I enjoyed reciting the fan chants or like what I have said earlier, doing the singing chants. Like what Kim Taeyeon has said in one of Korean programs she was a guest, that she felt empty every after their schedules, I also felt that. I felt empty after they performed their last song, IGAB. I wanted to see and hear more of them, but they were gone.
Almost ten hours of standing at the venue, anyone’s legs would really get tired, plus the two hours we stood at the bus going home. It was already late, but within those twelve hours or so, we haven’t eaten a proper meal, so my friends and I ate one-fourth kilograms of tocilog with two cups of rice each at JB’s Tapsilog. Then we finally arrived at H’s home at past three hundred. Spent an hour spazzing over what happened at the concert. And then went to sleep. We woke up at ten hundred, J and I prepared to go home to our own houses. As I went home, withdrawal symptoms from the concert started to hit me. Remembering what has happened, while relating it to my family.
Nineteenth day of the first month of two thousand and thirteen felt like a dream, a day full of memories that we could flash anytime in front of our eyes in the future, but not the excited and overjoyed feelings we experienced, because it’s only once in a lifetime.
They say nobody’s perfect, but at least we could prevent problems from occurring. So I would list some points in the event that I found disturbing and somehow ruined the whole concert experience.
> Bouncers had no Identity Cards, especially the Staffs. Would you listen to someone you don’t know ordering you around? No, of course not! Who are they?
> Lines were unorganized. Well, I never expected it to be organized. There will always be fans that are not disciplined or fair. But bouncers could have prevented it more by being strict, telling them to follow one line only.
> The faulty screens and audio systems at the back. I know I only paid for the bronze ticket, but it doesn't mean I should receive this kind of treatment, a treatment worth one thousand pesos only. And since I couldn't see the artists up close, I relied on the screen, but it also failed me, same with the audio systems. The concert was not only for those who bought SVIP and Platinum tickets. There were also fans in the Gold, Silver, and Bronze zones that came from far places to see the artists.
> Faulty mikes and audio players? Is six months of preparations not enough? If we fans were disappointed to what happened, and it was as well as the artists. They wanted to give us spectacular performances, but due to those faulty mikes and audio players they weren't able to do so.
> No happy ending. I know they are all busy and need to go back to Korea. But at least a last curtain call and bid farewell properly like any artist would do in a concert? Or maybe the organizers are putting up for their title Dream KPop Fantasy Concert, because it really felt like a dream, like the concert never really happened because it’s a dream, so the artists would just pop into bubbles when the reality hits us.
P.S. I hope the Emcee should be more knowledgeable about Korean Culture and Language.
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