Before we begin my ‘mini-series’ of blogs posts about my most recent sojourn to Korea, I feel it only fair to warn you that at least two of these posts (including this one) will be LONG and RAMBLING. If you have no interest what-so-ever in hearing about my EXO experience in excruciating detail from start to finish and the fan-girling that inevitably goes with it, look away now and come back during the next post which will be just general Korean goings on.

It would be a slight understatement to say that EXO are a popular band.

While I am aware that BTS (another k-pop band, in case you have managed to escape hearing their name too) is possibly better known around the world, EXO are especially much beloved in Asia and still have the ability after 11 years to sell out stadiums in the blink of an eye. And I’m not even exaggerating when I say that.

Tickets for any live event involving EXO usually sell out in pre-sales to members of their fan club, they don’t even reach general sale to the public. And even within the pre-sale, tickets are gone within minutes (for one EXO concert the reported sell out time was in seconds). So fierce is the battle for tickets that fans will actively take time off to head to a PC Bang (Korean computer gaming cafés known for super-fast internet) and even enlist the help of multiple people to all log in for them to increase their chances of securing a ticket. I’m telling you this only to make you aware just how incredibly ridiculously unlikely it was for me to even think about landing a ticket to this event.

Only 30,000 tickets were up for grabs (a two-day event, 15,000 for each day) and I was up against a hoard of dedicated Korean fans, all with tried and tested tricks for ticket buying, the fact they have a reserve-only delayed payment ticket option vs. a foreigner like me who has to fully complete a payment system there and then, and simply the fact I was competing with people accessing the 2^nd fastest internet in the world while sitting in the backwoods of the Hampshire countryside with something akin to dial up speed from the ‘90’s. 

Like I said, not a hope in hell.

And yet…rather like my trip last year, my perfect from start-to-finish Korean adventure…someone was obviously looking out for me and thinking that it wouldn’t be such a bad thing for me to have the opportunity to see EXO live on stage.

I have to say, the act of buying such a precious commodity takes its toll on the nerves. I don’t think I have ever before been so incredibly excited and terrified all at once. I wanted a ticket. But then if I got a ticket, it would mean I’d have to travel back to Korea for a 1-day event (not in the plan or budget for the year). I wanted a ticket. But then if I didn’t get a ticket, I think my soul would have been really quite crushed (also not in the plan for the year).

So there I sat, nerves jangling and hands literally shaking. I had followed as much online advice as I could when it comes to buying tickets like these. I joined a chat group for international fans who planned on trying for tickets to get real-time advice and support. I fake-attempted to buy a ticket for another event on the same site to see what the layout of the ordering and payment pages were like (in Korean don’t forget). I had gone through the fan club pre-sale verification process (I hate you SM Entertainment for making this so bloody complicated). And yes, you read that right, I am in the official EXO fan club and bought my membership last year specifically on the complete off-chance that an event like this might occur. I had opened numerous ticket screen tabs for Yes24 on my computer so that I could join the pre-sale queue multiple times to have a better chance at getting into the ticket site. I had pre-emptively written all my payment details on a cheat sheet on my screen to copy and paste (for faster payment). I set up my mobile phone in the one(!) location in my home where it actually gets a signal (for a payment confirmation text). And I had even gone so far as to log onto the live Yes24 server clock page (such a thing exists just for moments like this) to know the exact time the ticket site would go live and had already timed my refresh rate so I could click 4 seconds beforehand to account for my internet speed.    

Yeah. I wanted a ticket. Badly.

My first shock came in the fact I managed to get into the sale queue at all, let alone as quick as I did. My number popped up as 2,503 with a wait time to get in of about 40 minutes. That was far better than I was expecting to be honest, and I felt even more relieved by this fact when my live chat started buzzing a literal second later with people already back at 6,000 in the queue. That happened fast.

So, I sat and I waited, watching the seconds tick down, always making sure my screen was live and I was still logged in. All the time my chat was buzzing away with people who managed to get a ticket and reporting what was left to buy, people whose computers had kicked them out, or even worse that they’d accidently logged out and were now back at 15,000+ in the queue with their sense of hope already dwindling away.

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

And then…. I was in.

Click anything.

That was the only advice to follow here.

Don’t try to be picky. Don’t think you’ll get a good seat. Just. Pick. ANYTHING.

And so, I did. Or tried to.

I clicked immediately to the Sunday date, scanned the map, and tried for the 2^nd tier in the stadium (possibly folly). Clicked on seat after seat after seat. Taken, taken, taken.

And then one! I click. And up pops the payment screen. And go….

Copy and paste, copy and paste, copy and paste. Click….

And damn you credit card verification text!

Sent. OK. So why isn’t my phone receiving it. Tick tock, tick tock.

I pick up the phone and dash outside for a better signal.

Ding!

Back inside, type, and click and….

Argh!!!!!!

Message box in Korean!!!!!

I have no fricken’ clue what it says!!!!

Cue Papago and translate….’Another user has purchased this ticket already’.

What the….?

And this is where I learned that not only was a battling against the Korean reservation system (Korean purchasers are allowed to simply click a reserve button and pay within two hours), but I was also battling with the fact it seems that the tickets continue to be available to anyone even as you are trying to physically pay. It’s not a system where you can select a seat and have time to pay because you have a hold on it.

Mother f****ing…..

Right, back to the seating chart. No chance on the second tier now. Not even worth the time trying. I randomly click on another seat further from the stage, hoping people would still be concentrating more at the front in the vain hope they’d stumble across something.

Got one…here I go again and…lost it again in payment.

I think I’m about to have an actual heart attack.

Third time’s the charm?

This time I just head for the nosebleed seats, almost as far away as I can possibly be in the hope I’ll have enough time to pay…

And…

 The world just stops.

And then, there is just shock. A quiet overpowering shock and uncertainty.

Have I really just managed to buy a ticket? I think so.

Because although it is sitting there on my account, with my name on it and an allocated seat; there is just a sense of un-realness to it. Like, maybe there was still some other step I needed to take to confirm it, or more information I needed to register.

My phone continues to buzz and when I glance at it, it is filled with people either congratulating or commiserating. It’s only been fifteen minutes since the site went live (yeah, that 40 minute wait time really didn’t happen) and people in the chat are already confirming it’s all over. Sold out. There are still thousands of people waiting in the queue for their chance to glance at the ticket page to really see there is nothing left.

But for me, it’s all only just begun.

Because now I need to decide if I am really, honestly and truly, committed to spending £2000 to fly all the way back to Korea just to see and hear EXO, live on stage.

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