With these types of vlogs I hope to show international fans the whole experience of Kpop concerts in Korea. There isn’t any lining up from morning as all the floor tickets have a number and people line up according to that number. My ticket number was standing section A 288 and I was about 3rd row in that section. I could see really well, except for when they were on the middle stage. All the fans around me were really lovely and it was no where near as pushy as other concerts I’ve been to in Australia.

So why am I this into iKON? I didn’t expect to like another Kpop group this much again, especially at my age. I have been a BIGBANG fan for many years and was interested when YG Entertainment started talking about debuting new groups a few years ago. I remember watching WIN: Who is next TV show before we moved to Korea and was impressed by Team B (iKON before they were iKON) the most. One of the reasons why I tend to like YG artists is because they have to be part of music creation, while other Kpop companies rely on other songwriters. Back then as Team B they were still kids but showed amazing talent. Even though Team A (the YG group Winner) won back then, it still made an amazing chapter in iKON’s origin story. And that’s one of the things that gets me more excited about iKON rather than BIGBANG these days, I became a BIGBANG fan in 2010 and was a bit late to the party, but with iKON I know I’ve been there from the beginning and seen them develop. YG is very good at creating a narrative around his artists. So of course I’ve followed them through the MIX & MATCH show and Bobby and B.I through Show me the Money, the rap elimination show, and then was blown away at their first ever debut concert. Around that time I had some pretty serious health issues and received some bad news about my long term health so listening to music and getting excited about something actually really helped me focus on the positive instead of the negative. So I’ll always be really thankful for that.

This was actually filmed months ago, right after the iKON debut concert.

Chloe and I are a similar age (which is older than the average Kpop fan) but lately have been going to some Kpop concerts. They are so fun and I find I enjoy music a lot more when I’m older and married and just don’t care what people think and I’m not going to cry because I can’t date my “oppa”. In fact, I don’t have any “oppas”! I’m older than all of them…. hahaha…

We’ve mentioned scalpers in another video but there are always so many scalpers in Korea and they manage to buy up a lot of tickets. If you are going to buy tickets from a scalper, Hugh recommends waiting because prices they quote will likely go down the nearer the concert gets.

Another thing we talked about, but had to cut because of time, was that things can be exaggerated about what concerts are like. Never believe gsirl who were right at the front who says things like “The whole concert was sooo dangerous! So many girls fainted! Everyone was squished in!” The experience in the first few floor rows is vastly different to people in seats or even those just a few meters away on the floor. Most people are sitting in seats and are fine. Of course it’s hectic right at the front. Of course girls have to be pulled over the barrier, of course someone will faint. You don’t have to be right at the front though – you aren’t forced to be there! I just wanted to make a point of that because if you do see tweets or headlines like that, it’s because it’s more attention grabbing. Like the iKON concert where they had to stop the concert in the middle because of the crowd for 10 minutes. They were just being extra careful, so that it didn’t get too dangerous. The way it can then be talked about online is often exaggerated. With all due respects to my friends that do work in media and for Kpop sites, I know what you do to get the clicks…