KCON NY was an experience jfc
(Super long post below)
Ok, so this weekend I went to KCON and it was honestly so crazy and unbelievable that I have to write down everything that happened.
To begin with, when I found out that KNK was going to be at this years KCON I knew I had to go. I fell for them so hard and so fast that there was no way I was going to miss this, SF9 and Up10tion were a plus too. So, I got permission from my parents to go and convinced my friend Christine to come with me. We bought P5 combo tickets because honestly just listening to them live was good enough for me.
Now, my other friend Sabrina knew I was going to KCON and she introduced me to Annie who was going as well and needed a ride. That was no problem for me so Annie and her friend Autumn would be joining my car on the way to Newark. So far there were four people in our group. Me and Christine find out about this contest KCON is doing called #bringyourkrowd, where basically the leader of the biggest group of people attending the KCON convention wins a single Hitouch ticket to an artist of their choice. I usually never win any contests or raffles ever but Christine convinced me that we might as well try so I was going to submit us four as a group to the contest (last minute of course) but then I found out the contest got extended by a week. Now we had another week to find more people to join our krowd. A week later I entered the contest as a group of six: Christine, Annie, Autumn, two people that Annie found to room with her and Autumn, and me.
The day before Father’s day I’m out at a restaurant with my family and I get an email. I see KCON in the subject line and skim the message. I can’t believe it. I’m freaking out in the middle of this restaurant and I have to reread this email like five more times in case I’m imagining things. I WON the #bringyourkrowd contest. It’s probably the biggest thing I’ve ever won in my life. I obviously chose KNK as my top choice and send the appropriate details and Christine, Annie, Autumn, and I freak out about this for the rest of the night. Then we find out that Annie won two P3 tickets for day one too.
It still isn’t time for KCON so the four of us have a group chat and end up talking about the benefits that come with the tickets we buy, things like the fan engagement chances. Christine went to KCON last year and told us that her group basically got all “sorry” on their chance tickets, meaning they didn’t win anything. Flash forward to pre check in for KCON, we get to line up in the diamond line since I won the contest and since we got there early we’re first in line. Check in starts late which kind of sucks but when we finally get our stuff, it gets crazy. The lady gives me my prize and instead of one hitouch for KNK I get two, so I give the other to Christine. Out of all the chance cards we bought, only 2 were “sorry”s. We spend another hour at the precheck in trying to trade our audience passes for different groups and all get what we want and are like buzzing from the fact that we got so many hits on our scratch cards.
At Klub KCON that night they have 2 special guests and KNK is the special artist showing up, which I didn’t know when we bought the Klub tickets so my luck is at an all time high. Annie gets to ask a question to JunCurryAhn the guy she basically came to KCON for, and we get to watch Koreos perform a random dance compilation. I become an instant fan of one of the dancers, whose name I find out is Kevin. KNK shows up at the end of the night and it was amazing. I was so close to them and they were so cute and nice to the crowd. There was also a really good dancer from youtube, Tere Akira, and the Klub and when me and Christine saw her the next day we took a picture with her.
The next day is when the convention actually starts and is also when our luck gets even better. I go to my hitouch with Christine in the morning and its wonderful, everything I expect plus I’m almost right next to the stage, so even closer to them than I was the day before. Hitouch ends and we go to SF9s fan engagement. After that I don’t really have anything else planned for the day so I go to the marketplace and buy the new KNK album that comes with a free poster for 12 bucks since it was 50% off (like what the heck it was so cheap). Then Autumn tells us some random girl gave her a red carpet pass for that day, for FREE. So now I get to go to red carpet with Autumn, since she also had a red carpet ticket, and see Friday’s lineup in person, including KNK again. After red carpet we go and join up with Christine and Annie at Chipotle, and Autumn finds out that a press guy is giving away P2 GA tickets for FREE. We find out where he is and Autumn and I sprint out of the restaurant to find him. We find him and he gives us his last six tickets, four for that night, and two for the next night. So now all of us have P2 tickets for Friday, next to the stage. We line up kind of late since we got the tickets last minute so we’re thinking, ‘oh it will be hard to see them since we’ll be in the back’. But when we get there, we’re SO CLOSE to the stage. Not as many people bought tickets for the first night, so even though were some of the last people to get to GA standing, we have a clear view of the stage, we’re only a few feet away from the front. All of us are about to cry because we were not expecting to be this lucky and we’re freaking out. Those P2 tickets were worth so much more than what we spent on our own tickets. Just the experience of seeing all those idols up close as they walked towards our side of the stage was overwhelming but then when KNK is leaving, I wave at my bias of the group, Seungjun, and he sees me and waves back and honestly I cannot believe it. Even though I went to Klub and the Hitouch, the time he actually waves back at me is the concert, the P2 tickets were such a blessing.
Day two of the convention I don’t really have anything to do so I just wander around, Annie and I keep seeing Kevin everywhere which kind of tempts me to ask for a picture with him but I hesitate and just try to win stuff from the booths as I walk around. I finally win a hat from the AT&T booth that has a certain style that I have been looking for, for months. Since I have free time, I save a spot in the P2 line for us and I find out that Annie took a picture with Kevin and another Koreos dancer and fot their autographs too which encourages me to do the same. Almost immediately after that I spot Kevin across the street. I don’t want to leave my spot, but the girls behind me in line are nice enough to save it for me and I like almost sprint to where he is before I lose track of him. He takes a selfie with me, and I can’t stop grinning (it was lowkey awkward though because he asked if I wanted a picture with everyone or him and I said just him like such a fangirl). So after that I’m already super content. Later on Christine is a the 1M meet and greet and wants a sharpie to get their autographs, and she also spots Koreos there too. So I’m really tempted to have her get Kevin to sign my hat. I give her the sharpie and my hat and head over to the Toyota booth waiting for Up10tion to make an appearance. Christine messages me that she lost him which sucks but then I spot him near the Toyota booth and then see that he starts walking back in her direction so I frantically message her and she gets his autograph for me. She even comes up with the idea to have him write it to me which was amazing (on our drive back to MD, Annie and I were talking about Koreos, and it finally dawned on us how famous they were). I’m even happier at this point and I go back to wait in the P2 line after the Up10tion appearance. The girl in front of me in line is giving away her red carpet ticket and no one wants it because they don’t think it’s worth it so I ask for it. Now we have another free red carpet ticket. Autumn was just given an all access pass the day before (also for no reason) so with this ticket, Christine was able to go to red carpet. For the second day’s concert, we end up with two P2 GA standing tickets, one P2 seated ticket, and one P4 ticket. Since I don’t care about the second day’s line up as much I take the worst seat. Annie and Autumn take the GA tickets and get even closer to the stage than the day before. Christine get the P2 seated ticket and ends up in the section where the CNBlue members stand to MC part of the concert. Up10tion ends up performing their new comeback song for the first time at that concert. After the concert, Annie and I spot these dancers (Rice Paddy Heroes) from the Kpop dance battle competition we saw earlier that evening. We sprinted to them and get a picture with two of the guys from the group. When we’re done we end up fangirling so hard and honestly, I don’t even know why.
This all happened in the span of 3 days and I don’t think I’ll ever be this lucky again in my entire life. KCON was so much better than I expected.
