Big Bang ticketing in my country has been a MESS. I wouldn’t call myself a VIP but I am a fan of Taeyang, Daesung and T.O.P as individual artists. And as a kpop listener since 2nd gen, even though GD gives me the ick, I still want to go and experience the show for their 20th anniversary & knowing that this might be their last tour as a group. I was able to see Taeyang’s Manila show for his solo tour last year and it was an incredible experience because he is an outstanding performer. But here’s what I have noticed since. That concert had way too many empty seats. The venue was in MOA Arena with a 15k to 20k capacity. I also read later on that they even had to give away a bunch of tickets the last minute and made many random people outside the venue come in for free to make it look less empty than it already is. But the local fans’ narrative already back then were all like “oh we’re sure if BB have a tour stop here as a group it will be sold out in a few minutes”. And as usual, you could see a bunch of comments too blaming either the label or the promoter for “not promoting enough”.
Then here comes GD’s Ubermensch Tour. During the announcement, social media posts for promotion about the stop in our country were filled with gatekeeping comments like “international fans please don’t watch here, please give the chance to us Filo VIPs 🙏”, and of course the usual “OH IT’S GONNA BE WAR”. They were also fighting with another fandom about whose concert has the higher amount of queue numbers. The venue chosen for this one-night only concert was Philippine Arena with a 55k max capacity, but some sections were closed & the actual show’s capacity was reduced. J-hope from BTS at the time recently had a ticket sale for his own solo tour too that had sold out in minutes. His team chose to use MOA Arena’s max capacity for 2 shows. So when GD’s show was announced and people found out he was going to be the first male kpop soloist to perform in PH Arena, social media comments were like “ohh don’t end j-hope and BTS like that”
And guess what. It’s the ONLY stop in GD’s entire world tour that did NOT sell out. In fact, there were way too many empty seats again. And the interesting thing was Filo VIPs were not only full on blaming his label and the organizer again for “failing to promote better”, this time they added another thing to blame: the venue. They were saying it’s too far away from Manila and the commute is difficult etc. Mind you, both PH Arena and PH Stadium which are next to each other are now the standard venue of most major stadium level concerts in our country because they’re the only ones that can accomodate the capacity needs of mainstream and popular artists, both local and international. And that’s just about an hour away (35 km) from Pasay where MOA Arena is located. They were all saying “nooo the demand is there but oh, the odds are just all against them 🥺😢.” Sure. And as always, comments like “Oh just wait til the full group comes here it will be sold out in seconds OH IT WILL BE A BLOODBATH!!!!”
Earlier this year, during BTS’ concert sale here (which sold out in a day that they had to add a 3rd show that also quickly sold out too due to high demand), it’s pretty comical how there were again several loud VIPs saying shit like “just wait til Big Bang announces their tour here” but ofc we know not to take all those people seriously. They could be trolls and bots and even set up accounts but what do we know.
And then the Cosmos World Tour was announced. Filo VIPs were very happy to know we are included for one show but when they found out it’s going to be in SMDC Festival Grounds many got very upset, understandably. It’s a 10 hectare open-air space that can accommodate up to 75k people but the one big problem with it is, there is no elevation. It will be a struggle to watch from seats located at all the way to the back. But I’m also thinking, well people were so loud complaining about PH Arena and PH Stadium and not wanting their shows to be there before. So where else were they expecting the venue to be? I also read that BigBang said that they strictly made this entire tour a stadium-tour only so they wouldn’t have really chosen MOA Arena. Idk to me it’s kinda arrogant to think you only deserve stadium capacities at a country that you barely have a demand for (based on previous failed non sold out shows). But then whose fault is it for them to think they do have the BIG demand?
Another major issue is the damn pricing. Like what the hell. It’s one of the most overpriced recent concerts I’ve ever seen. And clearly there’s a big miscalculation by the organizer here. The economy in our country right now is also shit. But what I found interesting again is there seem to be efforts again by certain stans to drive the narrative on social media before the ticket sale even started that it will be sold out anyway, and they were already hoping they add additional shows. Which to me felt like these were driven by the competition that they keep trying to push with the other group that have had to add a 3rd show on top of the initial 2 shows already announced. They must have seen how the bad economy still barely did a dent on the recent ticket sales for BTS, Bruno Mars, and even for some kpop groups in their arena shows like Babymonster, Enhypen etc. Twice, Blackpink and even 2NE1 also had very succesful concerts here not too long ago.
Fast forward to now, general sale started yesterday at 10am. So many people were surpised to see how fast the queue was moving and in a just few minutes there was no wait time anymore at all. You can just go back in and out and see the seats availablity and so many still haven’t been sold up til this very moment. You can also still check it here.
Adding to the frustration of some fans are, because they had a false sense of high demand for it, some panic bought multiple tickets, some bought mutliple tickets thinking they can resell them for higher, some bought tiers they didn’t really want because the ones they wanted were unavailable and were probably in others’ carts who didn’t end up buying them. Some bought their desired tiers anyway thinking they can easily resell the initial one they got. Let’s not even talk about all the people who thought they had to pay extra for a membership fee so they could join the presale and now feeling like clowns. And now what do we have? Apart from the show still barely selling, we also have a bunch of people in our local concert marketplace fb groups desperate to resell the extra tickets they bought and are likely will be forced to sell them below SRP.
Filipino VIPs are some of the loudest and most toxic BB stans on social media. Their very visible presence must have really skewed the perception of promoters and even BigBang themselves. Add to the fact that the rest of Asia and other SEA countries had no issue selling out and even adding more shows. I think their NA and EU stops are doing well too. The worst case scenario now is if this will not result to cancellation, they might not ever come back here and we will be forever removed from their map. But now if you look at the fandom’s discourse about this, it’s all BLAME THE VENUE. IT’S THE VENUE. “If it were in PH Stadium it will be sold out in minutes!!!” Are we really sure about that though? I see so many people are surprised they’re barely selling, but for me personally I have seen this coming since that Taeyang show but oh well. I was supposed to buy a ticket yesterday and get the lowest CAT 7 Tier but at this rate I’d like to just wait for someone reselling it for much lower because I’m sure I will find one.
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