KpopKnight UK was a total shit show at the SSE Wembley Arena this evening (my birthday :c). The acts were amazing and they performed so well under the circumstances. A lot of shit went down, so for my own way to vent and maybe to let a few others know what happened I’m going list it and give a brief explanation of what KpopKnight UK was supposed to be.
KpopKnight UK was supposed to be a concert with 4 Korean groups performing:
Opening- new 6 member boy group Seven O’clock
Second- 5 member girl group Tahiti
Last, Headliners- 7 member boy group Monsta x
and here is what went wrong:
1) Tickets only went on sale 2 weeks before the event- at ridiculous prices (original lowest prices being £110) only for the tickets to go on sale for much lower prices a few days before the concert and Wembley arena had not even agreed to the event until 2 weeks ago. (as well as fake tickets being sold, people who bought from the KpopKnight website had to get their tickets changed at wembley)
2) The event was poorly advertised- they even asked fans to promote the event and those who had helped to sell a large amount would get special benefits. One being press who were promised to be able to interview the artists but turned out that KpopKnight did not inform the artists or their managers of the arranged interviews (and quite rightly both the press and artists were pissed off and confused) and KpopKnight called Monsta x “Snobby” for not agreeing to an interview that they had not informed them of.
3) Due to this tickets failed to sell- People thought the event was fake because we all knew they would not be able to sell out WEMBLEY FCKING ARENA (even G Dragon was not able to sell it out completely) they had to section off half the arena and people were moved to standing and closer seats ( me and my friends were moved right next to the stage seating) and because so few people turned up the organiser - KpopKnight - thought it would be a good idea to start LETTING PEOPLE IN FOR FREE when a lot of people had to pay a lot of money to get in. On top of this only around 4 people paid for VIP meet and greet with artist Se7en so they invited people from the standing area FOR FREE. understandably this pissed off a lot of people not only for unfairness but the total disrespect for the artists.
4) No Translators- okay so being from south korea these artists are not fluent in english and the majority of us as fans do not speak fluent korean so KpopKnight thought it would be a good idea to not provide translators for the idols, which was so upsetting because the idols that could speak a little bit of english were trying so hard they really did a good job and you could tell that they wanted to say so much more but the language barrier was too great. 2 days days before the event KpopKnight put a message on social media asking for translators.
5) Technical issues- there were so many issues and a lot of disrespect to ALL of the artists I was so shocked and upset about what happened but I’ll just highlight the few that stood out the most.
When Seven O’clock had finished performing they wanted to take a picture with the crowd as they were excited to see so many international fans coming to support them but as they were posing the lights went out and they were being rushed off stage and as a member was saying “Please!” their mic was turned off (I think they managed to get a quick picture before they were rushed off, I hope at least) and as they were exiting the stage the voice over said “Finally” which was extremely rude and disrespectful to Seven O’Clock.
as Tahiti were coming on stage THEY PERFORMED IN THE DARK FOR A GOOD 3 MINUTES, the lights and screen were off as they were performing their dance.
Before acts come onto the stage they show their names and logos on the big screen but as they were showing Se7en’s name they switched to Monsta x’s (monsta x being the headliners the cheers got louder as the logo switched) which was a horrible thing to do to another artist and after a minute of it being on screen they then switched it back to Se7en.
Monsta x’s performance was cut short by 2 songs and they also failed to have working mics throughout the whole time they were on stage.
6) THEY GAVE OUT MONSTA X’S HOTEL INFORMATION- That’s right, as one of the special benefits to advertising and bringing a lot of people in they would give you the groups hotel information, their privacy and safety thrown away for publicity and money, fans saying that the organiser of KpopKnight WALKED THEM to the hotel. The groups safety was tested a lot that day with bringing the groups through the audience entrance and exiting the same way, they were swarmed with only 2 guards keeping 200 screaming zombie fans away from the 7 boys which was also a problem for the driver of their car who was filming the fans and crashed into a pole (knocking off their number plate, I hope the boys are okay after that)
7) After their performances the groups were rushed off stage without getting to say goodbye- No encore, no group end stage, the concert was supposed to end at 10pm, we went in late and came out early ??? and the voice over had the audacity to say “See us in thailand”.
other things to take into consideration:
Seven O’clock only had 5 members attend tonight as their leader was on a show called “Mixnine″ a korean reality show for up and coming idols, they missed their leader getting into the final of the show for this.
Monsta x’s I.M spent his birthday on a plane for this.
MONSTA X’S WONHO’S GRANMOTHER DIED 4 DAYS AGO and he comes to the uk to be treated like THIS.
KpopKnight is disgusting, they lie to fans and idols, they are unorganised and disrespectful. They only care about money these guys did these artists dirty and disgraced the UK kpop community tonight they put the idols in uncomfortable situations and completely disregarded their safety. They treated the fans unfairly and I just hope that the groups do not blame the UK for this and return at a later date with a different organiser because honestly if they had just put planning and bit of fucking respect into it could have turned out great.
If we compare this to Korea Festival 2017 - over 4000 tickets sold (at lowest $30 for the concert) 4 acts (2 major groups) enough space while still being full in an appropriate venue, sure there were a few problems with the day time event but overall it was a good experience for fans and idols everything that KpopKnight Uk was lacking.
Aside from all of this, the performances were AMAZING! the artists worked so hard with their english and their dancing and vocals were fantastic this alone made my birthday a day to remember ♥
I guess what I’m trying to say is never come to the UK ever again, KpopKnight, Fuck you.
