The best feeling to have as a K-POP fan is to be told your ultimate bias group is coming to your country. I was over the moon when I heard rumours of MONSTA X will be participating in the KPOPKNIGHT in London. But, there was a lot of suspicions that it was a scam. At first, I thought it was until SE7EN confirmed it, then MONSTA X then Tahiti and Seven O’Clock. Everyone was getting so excited for this concert to be happening. The prices were released and I was disgusted, as for the other fans. £110 for the furthest seat from the stage… that’s quite a stretch right? The event was announced 2 weeks before the D-Day with no proof and Wembley saying that there was no events happening that night, all we had to do is wait for Wembley’s confirmation and they did confirm thank god. Tickets weren’t selling so about a week before the show KPOPKNIGHT started doing offers such as, £50 OFF, 20% etc… On the 3 days before the show they put out a 50% off code. I was literally screaming and crying of happiness, all I could think of is “I’m really going to be seeing MONSTA X and the other great acts on stage”. I literally rushed home after college to get the £110 ticket for £55. I was beyond happy.
The day of the concert came and I was ecstatic. I was jumping around the place, practicing the dances of the groups performing so I could dance in my seat! My friend, Charlotte and I got to Wembley Arena around 11 to change our E-Tickets into psychical tickets. On the E-Ticket it said we could collect it from 10am-6pm, so we both thought to go around 11. When we got to the arena there was already about 50-60 people lining up, and some of them had been there since 8pm the night before. All I could think is, “wow aren’t they cold?”. I couldn’t complain about them lining up that early because I would have done the same thing if I could. We went to the box office and as soon as we went to go line up they told us to come back at 1:30pm. So we went to Starbucks and Just bought a drink and pretty much predicted what songs everyone would perform that night. 1:15pm came so we went to go line up before the line got big and we didn’t get our tickets till about 2/2:30pm. The staff told us if we get a friend to say our name while collecting/buying tickets they would give us these really cheap pictures of all the groups.
Charlotte and I didn’t line up for the day like we’d usually do for any concert because we had reserved seating so we went off to Central London to get some lunch and got back to the arena about 5:30pm as the doors “opened” at 6pm. A Seven O’Clock staff Member started coming up the line and giving out their banners, which was really sweet. 6pm comes and we still hear the artists practicing. I went to go ask the security why we hadn’t been let in yet because the show starts in less than a hour. I was told that they practiced the encore and were sweeping the confetti up. Why would you practice the encore as soon as the doors are supposed to open? Well anyway, at about 6:30/6:45 we got let in and it took about a good 15/30 minutes to get to the door when we got told that we were at the wrong entrance and the seating entrance is on the other side. No one told us anything about where to enter.
Finally, we are in the venue and we actually have quite good seats. You could tell more than half of the arena is cut off by a big black curtain. With the space we had it wasn’t packed at all but it wasn’t as empty as people thought, there was a lot of space free but again why would you hire Wembley for such a short notice and disgustingly expensive tickets? The concert started with Seven O’Clock, as they came on stage everyone was screaming but MONSTA X’s logo popped up on the screen. Seven O’Clock started there performance without any hesitation. When they started I went crazy, they have crazy stage presence. I can’t believe how underrated this group is. They were so talented and did great covers. I was actually starstrucked. I fell in love with them. I noticed people were still coming in after the concert started, KPOPKNIGHT started the concert even without most the audience in the arena. And, they were giving random tickets to random people on the streets. How unprofessional. As Seven O’Clock’s set finished a security came up to the area we were sitting in and he told us that we can go to standing if we wanted to. I’ve never ran so fast in my life just to get near the stage. As I got the standing, we were away from the pit but we still had such a great view, it was amazing. Me and my friends were standing behind all the artists’ managers.
Tahiti was second, they were so cute. They really know how to do a show. Again, I don’t know how they are so underrated, they can sing, dance, rap and they have visuals. They were all so cute but, as they came on stage they danced their whole intro in darkness, I don’t know if it was a technical difficulty or they were just being unprofessional about it, but I did feel bad for them. After that their set was perfect. I really do wish they’d come back here for a solo concert, I would definitely go! Next was SE7EN, and what I’ve written about his performance really doesn’t show how talented this man is. He isn’t called a KPOP legend for no reason. But there was one problem, the KPOPKNIGHT staff kept changing SE7EN’s Logo to MONSTA X’s. This was the second time this happened, now I’m thinking are they actually doing it by accident or for screams? SE7EN is no joke, he really knows how to put on a show for his fans, and he chose the best songs for his set.
So this is where I got a little emotional. If you know me personally, I am obsessed with MONSTA X I’ve been following some of the members even before NO.MERCY, so it’s been about 4/5 years I’ve been following the boys. It’s the first time I’ve seen them in real life so I was having really big mix of emotions. I was emotional, happy, nervous, scared, sick. I didn’t know how to feel. Everyone’s coming up to me screaming that they are here and that I’m going to see Hyungwon. I felt like I was going to go crazy I just wanted to see them. I rushed through my bags to find my slogan and lightsticks. I put the banner in my back pocket and had my two lightsticks in my hand. All I hear is “Dramarama” and I lost it. I was just running around in circles getting even more mixed emotions. The lights finally came on and there I see MONSTA X, my inspirations. I naturally went into dancing Dramarama, while trying to keep those tears back. The atmosphere was crazy, everyone was getting into their fan mode, it was the best. They introduced themselves and I could see them so clear and I knew they could see me and my friends because we was calm, dancing and standing at the back away from the pit so if you was on the stage and just looked straight you could see us. All their songs they performed was just an out of mind experience. The last two songs they performed is a moment I’d never forget. I know the whole choreography to nearly all their songs so I couldn’t not dance along. I noticed Wonho just looking straight and my friend says “Jojo, isn’t Wonho looking at you?” Wonho was actually watching me dance along with them, I wanted to freeze and stand there in shock but I carried on. In “Beautiful”, there’s a dance move that Wonho does and he points, but he points in my direction and I literally just wanted to cry in a corner. My ults noticing me? This was a night to remember. Before the leave the stage they mention that they plan to come back the UK for a proper concert in their World Tour this year, my heart dropped. Does this mean I’ll actually get to meet them?
They said their byes, and we were getting ready for the encore and we are standing there and no one is coming back on to the stage and the security were rushing us to leave so we had no choice to leave. As we left we heard rumours that the concert was cancelled last minute, and that staff were having “disagreements” behind stage. We also found out that KPOPKNIGHT bribed fans into promoting their concert in exchange in for MONSTA X’s hotel details. We all just wanted to leave because it started to become a mess again, and I didn’t want anything else to ruin that night I had.
It was an amazing night but full of drama, rumours and unprofessional organisers. I hope that the artists don’t take this event as what UK KPOP fans are like, and I hope they come back soon.
By: Jojo Tay
