Day 8
Jangchung
On this day I went to Astro Aroha festival fanmeeting in Jangchung gymnasium. Astro is a korean kpop group that debuted 2016 and I'm a fan of especially one member. Sirja and Su accompanied me the whole day even though they didn't attend the concert.
This was the other concert that I bought tickets online for from someone else and it was a legit ticket. First when we went to the venue, we had to take subway to Dongguk univ. stop. Venue itself was right in front of exit 5, you cannot get lost! When we got out of the station I was shocked because we were there about 3 hours before event even started and there were LOTS of people. I had to line up a bit to get my ticket (I had only confirmation slip and id copy proof from buyer, I explained earlier that you need buyer's id or copy of it if you want to get your ticket). It went without problems and I got my ticket~
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| Translated it for you to understand better |
Anyway, after I got my ticket Sirja and Su accompanied me to go to merchandise queue because I wanted a lightstick (it's concert culture in korea to have a lightstick). But we only had two hours before doors opened and the line was soooooooooo long. We still went in the line and I was hoping to get the official lightstick. But in the end, two hours wasn't enough. Their system in mechandise tent sucked though, you had to fill a form which took time and then you could get your stuff what you wanted so because of that, so many were left without official merchandises. I ended up buying a cheap lightstick because as I said, lightstick is part of the experience. Anyway, if you go to a concert or even a fanmeet, be prepared to queue alot (to merchandise and to venue).
After my failed attempt to get the official lightstick I parted ways with Sirja and Su because it was time to go in. Before the doors there were wreaths and congratulatory messages from fans. It's also tradition that fans send for example rice and eggs to honor the artist and what I've heard, the food will be donated.
There were two queues to inside, one to ground floor, one to second floor. It was quite unclear and I had to ask couple times that I was sure I was going the right direction. But people were helpful there and I found myself to the 1st floor. I spotted my section right away but I was unsure about the rows because they were marked so that your place was actually marked in the seat in front of you. So I was confused that is my seat the one with the mark or is it the seat which in front of the mark was. So again I asked and the fans were really helpful and told me that I'm actually in the right row and pointed out my seat. If you are lost like me and can't speak korean, you can try english (though usually koreans are afraid of speaking english or don't know how to speak it) or then just point your seat number from your ticket and I'm sure they'll help.
When I sat down to my place I was admiring how good place I had and so close to the stage! It was funny that there were staffs going around and yelling that no photos during the show and "if you are seated next to foreigner, please tell them also this". But nobody next to me turned to tell me this. Well, I could understand it anyway but the persons next to me couldn't have known I can speak korean. In these kind of events you also see many foreigners who don't really speak koreans but they want to see the artist and let me say; there is no english usually used only than some small notices from the staff. So if you're a foreigner and want to attend and experience, be prepared to hear only korean. And keep and open mind, many of koreans don't speak english but they are very helpful still. In my experience, they actually speak chinese usually better than english. But it's just my experience..
When the fanmeet started, cheering was phenomenal! It was absolutely awesome to be part of the experience. Though I was in a funny situation because in my right side was an avid fan who went a little crazy throughout the concert and in my left side was apparently some fansite staff who sneakily took photos without even caring about the concert. It would be a long story trying to explain fanculture so let's just say that this "sneaky camera" -thing happens in every concert. If staff spots you taking photos, you're out and they confiscate your camera to delete your photos.
Anyway, I had awesome time. The end was memorable because during the second last song Astro performed, members walked through aisles between our seats and my favorite member, Cha Eunwoo walked beside me and I saw him from couple meters away.
Fanmeeting lasted about two hours and after it I met up with Sirja and Su again who had been waiting in the area. We said goodbyes to Su who had some school staff to do and then me and Sirja went to Hapjeong (near Sinchon) to eat dinner in a famous chicken restaurant. I have been raving about korean chicken meals before, but it's so good! I have yet to taste anything like it in other countries.
After eating ourselves full, we headed to Hongdae where we walked for a while before deciding to call it a day and went to sleep.
Next up is day 9 and 10. This post would be just too long if I would add day 9 because we went to visit Daejeon on that day.
(I seriously try to hurry up with my posts but let's see, I have too many school assignment currently >_<)
A fun ending to this post; I found this video from my photo archives which I took one day in subway~ it's from Sinchon and shows how normal korean subway station looks like, what the digital signs show and how you know the subway will arrive shortly xD
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