Fan account of SMTOWN SG 231112

I am typing this as soon as I reached home and got everything wet aired.

Let’s start from the beginning.

The merchandise queue is said to start at 10am. So being lazy, I only left house at 835am. Reached the place at 920am and from Twitter, I’ve heard that the queue was already formed and it was insanely long. When I arrived, the place was really crowded and messy. But many did not know where to go for merchandise. I met my friend who reached about 40min earlier. And thanks to her, I got one step closer to being a fangirl.

BANNERS.

 

I’ve always seen overseas fans holding up small sized hand held banners in TV programmes. And this time, I got hold of them.

 About 93% of the banner distributors were for EXO, and only the rest were for SJ,  SNSD, SHINee, etc. Mainly, the banner distributors for EXO were from China fanclubs, and by this I mean real big, existing fanclubs like XingPark etc, names that you will see on the list of birthday present gifters, planners, fanmeet photos etc. They actually came down to Singapore to distribute those colourful banners.

Of course, me being an exotic, was freaking happy and excited and I went around collecting them. I was happy that the maknae group of SM who just debuted this year managed to get so much support, and was thankful for those Chinese fanclubs to be so so dedicated.

After getting the banners we went to ask the security guard where to go for merchandise and were pointed to a place. People started assembling at that area, and we realized that they have allowed in the first batch who came in before 8. After 15 min, the gates were opened and everyone really pushed their way in. Another thing that made me felt like a crazy fangirl.

The queue went on for 3hours (for me) as we were quite in front for the second batch. But, when the second batch went in, the sale of merch had not started yet. I have to say that the organizers were reallllllly not well-organised. They took about another 20 min to start taking in orders. Even when the sale started, the people collecting merch for the buyers were slow at picking up items.

The sun was freaking hot, even for a Singaporean.

But just when everyone was sian, music blasted from The Float which was next to us, about 150m away, separated by the waters. The second batch of SM artistes who arrived were doing their rehearsals. SHINee, SJ then DONGBANG. Holy, the crowd was hyped up and excited. Everyone was screaming, doing fanchants, in midst of the tiring standing, stinging heat and seemingly never-ending queue. We were energized, by their presence, by their music. The 3h didn’t seemed long at all.

After buying my merch, we rushed over to the bridge to catch TVXQ’s rehearsal. Then, it was the collab stages rehearsals. Then BoA, then KANGTA. 

We left but soon later when I was checking Twitter, FREAKING SM OFFICIAL TWITTER JUST TWEETED A PIC SHOWING YURI STANDING WITH THE FANS, DISGUISED AND NO ONE NOTICED. HOLY CRAPPPPPPPPP WE HAD THE CHANCE TO SEE YURI!!!

So at around 3. WATER DROPLETS FELL FROM NOWHERE. IT STARTED RAINING. But I was somewhat relieved that it rained then, as it would probably stop later in time for the concert, and we would enjoy a nice weather.

But 4plus, when we went to check again, it was lightning, thunder all over. Tweets at that time were extremely worried. Everyone prayed hard.

6. Just half an hour before the stipulated starting time. All was clear. We headed out happily, with fans streaming in from all over the various nearby malls and MRT stations.

But then, rain was no longer a problem. RITS was. The show was delayed largely due to the late entrance of the fans mainly in the vip/premier queue, where I was at. Again, I need to stress that the organizers were, ironically, not organized at all.

For one, we couldn’t even hear their instructions. Even the Samsung promotions were louder. So this caused confusion over what was happening. (And I still don’t know what happened). Many fans were displeased. After a while, they started saying, vips and premiers please come to this side, this side is for vips premiers only. EVERYONE WAS LIKE, obviously we know, WE ALL ARE VIPS AND PREMIERS JUST LET US IN DO YOU THINK WE DON’T KNOW HOW TO READ ZOMG. And then, ignoring the fact that we were gonna be delayed, they did something ridiculous again, asking us to separate vip and premiers. HOLY. WE KNOW HOW TO SEPARATE JUST LET IN ONE BY ONE THIS IS FASTER THAN WHATEVER HOLD BACKS YOU ARE DOING NOW.

When we were all seated. Lights darkened. Everyone prepared their lightsticks and held their breaths.

F(x) started the show. But within the first song, Luna slipped and fell due to the heavy rain earlier on. She stood up quickly nonetheless and continued performing. For the rest of the show, we had quite a number of artistes slipping. And most fell real hard. But they stood up immediately and continued dancing. I was really worried. This is bad. I THOUGHT THEY WOULD AT LEAST MOP THE STAGE. Again, failure on the organizers part. During their introduction, Amber mentioned Luna’s fall and asked the audience to cheer for her.

The rest of the show was amazing, details on the specific items are already shared on various fansites, fandom twitter and fb acc so I will not elaborate on everything here.

So, the next thing to talk about would be the translator. I know she is nervous. But, as a professional translator, she is not doing a good job. Honestly. Making a lot of mistakes, etc. For example, SHINee mentioned that their upcoming SWCII will be held in Dec, but she said Nov. And SHINee had to correct her, on their own in English with no difficulty. Professionalism erhmm translator..

Anyway, I was sitting in LB which is the second row of the premier track seats. Track seats get to see the idols up close when they are travelling in the carts and buggy. SO, the first artiste I saw. I remembered clearly. It was Victoria and she was freaking pretty. After that, SNSD and fx for quite a few times cuz they kept travelling around as well. :) AND HOLY FREAK I SAW KRIS. AND HOLY KEY WAS BADASS. THEY WERE ALL PERFECT. EXACTLY HOW YOU SEE THEM IN THE SCREENS, PRETTY AND HANDSOME. BUT TO SEE THEM IN REAL LIFE MAKES YOU WOW and wonder how does such perfection exist. (NO PS BULLSHIT JOKES HERE THANKS)

For that, I was happy and satisfied. Because I get to see my soshi babys. Right up close. I ditched my seat and went up front when they came. DROPDEAD CLOSE AND THEY WERE DROPDEAD GORGEOUS.

So that was one happy part of the concert, getting a good seat and getting to SEE THEM 2M AWAY.

But, there was another highlight.

As f(x) was preparing for their performance of Electric Shock at the substage (open air, unsheltered stage), IT STARTED DRIZZLING. When it was their turn, it got a little bit heavier. When they left and BoA performed the next song, everyone was wearing their ponchos already. AND FOR ME, I WAS STUPID AND DIDN’T MANAGED TO GET A PONCHO. The rain got heavier, and heavier. And I was drenched wet. I didn’t care. Neither do the fans.

We instead, cheered louder than before, and waved our lightsticks harder than ever.

At that moment, I thought to myself. This rain, is meaningful.

I was kind of glad that it came.

It showed our unity. And that was what the VCRs /concert fillers were talking about.
I really liked their concert filler, and I cried both times. It spoke messages of miracles being made possible through music. (please do check youtube for fancams) And a story, of boys and girls, only being able to see each other through telescope, and then fell in love. Just like us. Though we spoke different language, we were able to connect, through music.

The countries and ethnicities all over the world, people speaking different languages. Not being able to see each other face to face. Fell in love through this beautiful language called SM Music. A virtual nation built by people who enjoy dancing and sharing the joy of music.
We are one nation, living together in SMTOWN.

A/N: Not the full quote just some parts that I managed to remember. so please do check youtube for fancams!!

So back in the rain, even though it got heavy, fans didn’t leave the concert and stayed on. This to others, may be a moodspoiler, but to us, it is a demonstration of our passion, our love, our dedication. As a group of family. As a SM Nation.

The rain made this concert a more dramatic one, a more memorable one, and certainly made it better. Because of this unique experience that both the idols and the fans shared. In the rain.

When I noticed that my stuff were getting wet and my clothes were completely drenched, I was afraid that I would be scolded by my parents (lol but true) and took out my umbrella. (Finally) But as I was in the second row, (premier seats has four rows), I am worried that I might block the view of other people.

So I went to the back and swopped place with a guy who had his poncho on, explaining my reasons.
And I noticed a fellow fan who also did not have a poncho, and she didn’t have an umbrella, and so we shared the umbrella together.

I was shivering because of my wet shirt and the cold wind. But I continued screaming with my light sticks. I smiled. Because I felt it. I felt the love. Amongst us fans, and with the idols.

Then, Hope started playing. Just when we were worried that the rain might prevent us from enjoying the BIGGEST HIGHLIGHT OF A SMTOWN CONCERT, the finale/ending song, THE RAIN MIRACULOUSLY STOPPED.

This is no joke.

It stopped JUST IN TIME once, before the start of the concert when everyone was worried that it might get cancelled. And it stopped another time, when the finale started. For us fans, it's really good news. Because Hope is when they start to interact together as a whole smtown and you get to see all the fun moments. The rain stopped. It stopped.

So from the whole event, I saw many people who were holding lightsticks of different colours unite. They suppported each and every group, even if it might not be their favourite group. But they did it because that group is the sunbae/or hoobae of their fav. group. This is love. Love with no conditions. Selfless.

This is the charm of SMtown. People of different fandoms, and allow me to shamelessly say, the best fandoms, in kpop to unite. Sones, Cassiopeias, Elfs, and also Shawols, Aff(x)tions, even Jumping Boas etc, and the newest addition to the family, Exotics.

One thing to note is when SJ performed, the sea of audience was immediately dominated by blue light sticks. About 80percent was blue.

And for the Taemin and Jonghyun stage, Taemin seemed a bit unwilling and kept pulling away. :P

For the past two days, I’ve did things that I think made me a certified fangirl. I’ve experienced “stalking”/not really its just waiting REALLY,  watching them rehearse, queued early for merchandise in the morning, got the banners, saw them real close, watching the concert in the rain and staying on.

I also shared this with my friend this morning that, in this kpop fandom, things really don’t come by luck, but by the amount of efforts put in. From seeing the idols, to getting good tickets to buying merchandise. It is the spirit of never giving up, and this is only possible because of love.

We stayed on with ther merchandise queue happy and contented because they were doing their rehearsals and we were doing the fanchants together.
We stayed on when it rained before the concert and prayed for the rain to stop, no matter where we were, Raffles City, City link mall, esplanade etc.

We stayed on when it rained halfway through the concert.

I think I have finished typing whatever I could remember, and will remember, things that I found meaningful and have noticed and learned through this smtown in sg.

Shall shower and go to sleep and post tmr. Good night. 148am.

To others, smtown may seem like a normal concert, but trust me, its more than that. It is the essence of kpop, and its fandom.

Fanacc by zachela.
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As I'm posting this on blogger today, it is already 1150 am. I woke up. 

Everything felt so surreal it is as if my memory of smtown has been encapsulated inside a box. Sometimes I wonder if I really went.

Suffering from withdrawal symptoms. The feeling is heavy.

Shall return to my daily routine of watching runningman then.

oh and i need to start doing schoolwork. holidays are ending.
--
and smtown heads off to bangkok for their next show..
virtual nation continues.. <3 br="br">