It took me approximately seventeen hours travel time to finally reach Busan Asiad Stadium for the BTS “Yet to Come” concert. In order to reach the concert venue, I travelled by plane (two planes to be exact), AREX, KTX, subway and by foot.
The night before the concert, I started getting ready for the next day. Prepared all the things I needed to bring (ticket confirmation, army bomb, money, power bank, T-money card, batteries and umbrella) and went to bed early. Since I was so excited for my first BTS concert, I ended up tossing and turning in bed and slept late LOL. Thankfully, the moment my alarm went off the next day, my brain immediately shouted instructions to my body and by 7:30 AM, I was done and on my way to Asiad Stadium.
I had three transportation options to reach the concert venue. I can take the taxi. It would be the fastest but it will be more expensive and I need to converse in Korean (it’s too early for my brain to be in tension LOL). Second option was the bus. It will be the cheapest but it will take longer due to traffic and based from my experience the previous day, I’m not confident that I won’t get lost. So, I chose the subway and prayed that it will not be too crowded. Fortunately, it wasn’t. Taking the subway was indeed the most convenient and best option because the moment I stepped inside the train, I immediately felt the vibe as there were a lot of ARMYs on the train. And when we stopped at our station, we were greeted with Jimin’s pretty photos.
I arrived at the concert venue before 9:00 AM and despite being early, there were already many ARMYs walking around the area and some were even lining up at the sponsors’ booths which were set up outside the stadium. I decided to check the ticket counter first before visiting the booths – wrong decision (in a way) LOL. If the line at the booths were quite long, the queue for the ticket counter was way longer. Eventually, I got stuck at the ticket queue and was not able to visit the booths at all. However, it was (I think) the best decision at that moment because I was able to claim my ticket/wristband before 12:00 PM considering that the ticket counter opened at 11:00 AM.
Even though it took a while for us to claim our ticket/wristband and freebies, it was never boring while queueing. There were a lot of small funny and interesting stuffs that made the waiting less tiring and boring. One of those was meeting another ARMY who came from Thailand. She was probably a decade younger than me but we still had an interesting discussion, thanks to BTS. We parted ways though when we reached the ticket booths as the ticket distribution was arranged alphabetically based from our first name. It may have been a brief encounter yet it was meaningful especially for someone like me who rarely talks to people.
Now that I got my wristband, I went back to the entrance/booth area to claim my YTC merch and search for food since I was getting hungry. As I passed by the sponsors’ booths, the lines were now unbelievably long so I decided not to visit anymore. Instead, I directly went to Weverse and claimed my hoodie and other merch. What I failed to foresee while leaving the ticket area/ground was the possibility that I might encounter a problem coming back in.
Yep, I was stuck outside the field. The security did not allow us to go back in because the queue for those who were claiming their tickets were still very long. A lot of us who already got our wristband could not understand why they won’t allow us to enter. The thing was, the ticket queue was on a stand still because the line at the ticket booths were filled. So they cannot move even if they wanted to. We on the other hand, just wanted to enter so we can go to the food stalls and have our lunch. The situation took a while to be resolved. They eventually allowed us in.
I’ve been to quite a few concerts now but this was the first time that I was at the concert venue hours prior to the actual concert. So, common sense dictated that I must make sure that I’m well-fed and hydrated to avoid any untoward incidents. As always, I followed my inner voice. I had a delicious lunch. Sadly, the queue at the beverage booth was long and I’m too tired from standing for hours already. That’s why I was so thankful to the ARMY who shared her extra bottle of water to me because she saved me from dehydration.
After having lunch, I went to our assembly area which was a few meters away from the stadium. We were arranged according to our assigned number. Initially, we did not mind standing while we waited to be ushered in. However, we were at our meeting point two hours prior to the concert and as time passed by, we started feeling tired. So we sat on the grass and just had a chitchat with each other. I’m proud of all the ARMYs in our block because nobody made a fuss about the delay although we did cheer when we started moving inside the stadium. Anyhow, it was during the wait that I met the ARMY who gave me her extra water.
Despite being stationed nearest to the stadium, we were allowed to enter the venue later than we expected. It was around 5:45 PM when we finally saw the inside of the venue. The moment we walked inside the stadium, it felt like we were attending an athletic event LOL. People at the stand were already seated and they were looking at us entering the venue. When we enter our designated block, everyone calming arranged themselves – no running, no pushing. I’m so proud of my block mates. Anyhow, we did not wait for long for the concert to begin. We felt sad for the last block though because the concert started while they were still walking towards their area.
In retrospect, a BTS concert is indeed different from the other concerts I’ve attended. Normally, I would go to the concert venue an hour or two before it begins. However, with the BTS concert, I realized that you need to be there early. I was even there early yet was not able to enjoy the sponsors’ booths. It would have been better if they opened the booths the day before so we could at least enjoyed the activities fully. There’s just too much things to do prior to the actual concert and even if you go there hours before, it won’t be enough. After everything I’ve went through, I’m just happy that I was able to purchase the merch. Another notable thing as well is that some ARMYs will give away BTS albums. If I wasn’t that lazy too carry something heavy that day, I could have accepted an album or two – but I was lazy LOL.
Her.Story 