K-Pop Concerts That Don't 'heal'

Exo (SM Entertainment Indonesia)

JAKARTA - Recently, the hallyu wave has rocked Indonesia again. There are countless K-pop groups holding concerts in Indonesia. Some of them have even stepped their feet here more than twice.

The existence of a market for K-pop makes many investors and promoters try to create K-pop-related events to make a profit. One of them, the largest SM Entertainment agency, which began collaborating with Trans Media in 2018. The project promises vocal coaching for trainees from Indonesia, visual content presentation, as well as concerts of SM Entertainment artists in Indonesia.

With so much demand for K-pop concerts in Indonesia, everyone can become the organizer. Also, nowadays K-pop concerts are not always held on a large scale. However, the number of concerts that are large is still not in line with the quality that is displayed.

It is still clear in my memory how events at K-pop concerts in Indonesia often scroll in red circles. One of the things that was horrendous in 2015 was a joint concert organized by SH Entertainment. The concert titled Best of Best brought big names such as Girls Generation, SHINee, WINNER, and BTS.

The Best of Best concert in Jakarta, which was originally held on January 10, 2015 at Lapangan D Senayan, Jakarta, was delayed because ticket sales did not reach the target, the promoter postponed the concert until May 23, 2015 which ended up being canceled. After that, SH Ent stated that they would return the tickets in addition to announcing the Monsta X group fan meeting.

But Monsta X's fan meeting was canceled, until then they announced Monsta X's single concert again in Jakarta. However, a few weeks before the concert, SH Ent again announced the cancellation of the Monsta X concert which was scheduled to appear on September 2, 2017.

Worse, two years later, it turned out that there were still many ticket buyers who had not received their money. It can be seen from the many Twitter users who have complained about the breaking down of ticket refunds from SH Ent until this year.

Hello @SH_ENTIndonesia, can my ticket still not be refunded until now? It's been 2 years? Monsta X? December 10?

- 희원 (@Ragil_DPM) March 25, 2018

In addition, this year, there is a K-pop performance called Super Kpop Festival 2019. This festival, which is claimed to be the biggest K-pop festival in Indonesia, carries an amazing line up, namely NU'est, APink, Super Junior DnE. , Kyuhyun, Red Velvet, Tiffany, Ha Sung Woon and many more. Held over two days, this festival shows more of its drawbacks than its advantages.

This was revealed by an account named @emaerye which wrote about her experience from entering the venue until after the concert was finished on the first day. Even though the event continued, the fans were still disappointed because the facilities provided by Global Cana as a promoter did not match the posters.

I want to tell you about the nuts and bolts of #SKFIndonesia Day 1 heu Just read-in so the promoter / event management knows how important market research is before starting a business

- yellovv🖐🏻 (@emaerye) September 28, 2019

Most recently, Saturday, November 23, the K-pop group, EXO held the EXplOration in Jakarta concert. The SM Entertainment caregroup is returning for their third solo concert after the last time in 2016. The tickets, which sold for less than an hour, have succeeded in growing the desire of EXO fans.

The concert is indeed going well, but still there are always spices in the running of the concert. A few days before the concert, the promoter and ticketing partner announced that they would provide a special line in the form of a fast track for buyers who actively shop on ticketing partner sites. But then they said special line access was given randomly.

Welcome to Indonesia, where there is no QN concert class like EXO but suddenly there is a fast track which is said to be loyal customers but they say they are chosen random :)

- IRMĀ (@ooh_irma) November 20, 2019

When asking Dyandra as the promoter about this incident, their representative, Zarius Dudy, said that fast track is a facility from blibli.com which means Dyandra only complies as a partner.

"Regarding the fast track / special line, it is a facility from blibli.com as a sponsor given to their users and only applies to enter the gate," said Zarius.

He also explained that the promoter will give an official statement in the near future regarding the incident and the maze of news that was on Twitter yesterday. Yes, the word 'Dyandra' even became a trending topic a few hours before EXO's concert started.

Sometimes, an incident just can't be avoided. But a good plan also needs to be prepared carefully so that the event can run smoothly without flaws. Because the term buyer is king occurs not without reason.