The Kpop Concert Con by Helen Rodgers

It’s no secret that Kpop is a huge money-making industry. From selling multiple versions of one album to overworking their idols in order to maximise their sales, the industry is overflowing with greedy people.

So, it’s no surprise that companies have realised the potential in Europe to make money off Kpop concerts with its growing fan base. However, the more Kpop concerts we have in the UK, the more companies seem to mess it up. The organisation of Kpop concerts in Europe – or more specifically the UK – has been dire this year and needs to be addressed.

From its conception until 2017, Kpop’s UK fan base has been growing slowly but surely. The majority of Kpop fans in the UK are multi-fandom, meaning they ardently support many groups at once, whereas Korean fans tend to support one group only. These two factors combined means that up until now companies were able to bring smaller Kpop groups over for a European Tour before they’d even had a breakthrough in their home country.

This is no longer the case.

Since 2018, Kpop has grown incredibly which means that there has been an influx in the amount of European Kpop tours. So much so that fans have been begging companies to stop sending artists over here because they can’t afford to support them all. Kpop’s target market is young girls, the majority of which are still at school or university and, therefore, can’t work jobs that give them the money to attend many concerts. Yet companies still capitalise on the artists fans by selling overpriced tickets even for smaller artists who can only fill small venues.

Unfortunately, Seven O’Clock were one of the artists that fell victim to the over-saturation of Kpop concerts in the UK this year. Seven O’Clock debuted in 2017 and have yet to make a significant dent in the Korean market. So, an events company called BeyondEnt, who had organised a few European Kpop concerts in the past, decided to bring them to the UK.

If this had happened years ago, it is likely that the concert would have been far more of a success than it was. The Seven O’Clock concert was announced in February – the same month that Kpop power-houses such as BTS and Monsta X also announced their European tours. As fans saved every last penny of their pocket money to attend those bigger concerts, it’s no surprise that they then didn’t have the money to see Seven O’Clock whose prices ranged from £30- £105. Fans were also put off by the company’s ticket selling sites which seemed untrustworthy to fans. Subsequently, the concert was almost cancelled due to low ticket sales. Luckily, the concert went ahead as more fans bought tickets out of respect and sympathy for the group.

BeyondEnt then had their second hiccough (and by ‘hiccough’ I mean utter disaster) of the year with their MASC concert in London. Once again, BeyondEnt decided to bring a little-known Kpop group to the UK. Despite the amount of Kpop concerts that were going on around the same time, enough tickets were sold and the MASC concert was going ahead.

Imagine the fans confusion when it was discovered just hours before the concert that there was no venue. The concert had been announced as taking place at The Garage (the same venue as Seven O’Clock), but that was changed to The Egg before settling at Trapeze Bar. Trapeze had no knowledge of the concert and were shocked when fans, who’d been on a wild goose chase to venues around London, arrived on their doorstep. Trapeze tried to arrange for the concert to be held there despite not having the capacity for the crowd or the equipment needed to host. The venue even set up a meeting with BeyondEnt to discuss the possibility of them hosting, however, BeyondEnt failed to show up.

The event ended up taking place at Newmarket Ale House Hotel and Restaurant. It was not a concert, but instead a fan-meeting of sorts – which is not what fans paid for. Fans were left regretting their decision to buy tickets and wanted refunds. Unfortunately, the Paris concert a few days later had the exact same problems.

Fast forward a few weeks and BeyondEnt finally announced that they would be refunding some tickets. However, the company stated that “the PARTICIPANTS of the London and Paris events CAN’T GET REFUND […] because there was a venue change problem but you came and enjoyed even though you knew that there was the venue change situation”. Some of these fans had travelled from around the UK – and in some cases from other countries in Europe – in order to attend this concert. In reality, those fans either had to go home after the venue debacle and miss the whole event or attend the mediocre substitute and still see their idols. The fact is that they did not get what they paid for and should be compensated.

The catastrophe that was the MASC concert came just days after fans were told that Eventim and AXS would be revoking some of the Ultimate VIP and Hi-Touch VIP tickets for the Monsta X concert.

Monsta X Tickets went on sale on 10th May (about 2 months before the concert) and it wasn’t until 2 weeks before the concert that fans were alerted by email that only the first 200 Ultimate VIP and 500 Hi-Touch VIP tickets that were bought would be able to keep the VIP perks. The rest would be downgraded to a standing ticket, they would be partially refunded and given an unsigned tour poster as compensation. To fans – some of whom paid up to £190 for early entry, a hi-touch event with the group, a signed CD or poster, a VIP lanyard and the chance to see Monsta X off – the blow was devastating. The situation was not helped by radio silence from both companies as fans sat waiting to find out if they were amongst the lucky few.

Though the fans who were downgraded received refunds, it is still preposterous that established and trusted companies such as Eventim and AXS could allow something like this to happen. The companies stated that the mistake was “due to a programming error”, yet it took them two weeks to become aware of the problem.

All we can do is hope that these companies have learnt their lessons. That out of respect for the artists and fans, they will make steps to improve for any events they hold in the future.

Always make sure you know your rights as a ticket purchaser. Always read the small print and T&Cs.