Day 64: Asia Artist Awards

I went to another award show today! This award show is called Asia Artist Awards and it had so many groups performing at it including Wanna One, BTS, Zico, KARD, Seventeen, and many many more. I booked the tickets online through Trazy again, but this time I chose to use the bus that they provide rather than taking the subway (it was at the same place as the MBC x Genie Awards that I went to in the beginning of November).

Ticket pick-up was at 2 pm at Hongdae station. I left super early to make sure I was there on time and arrived with over half an hour to spare. I hadn't eaten yet so I walked to a nearby kimbap place and grabbed a quick snack. On the way back to the station my sister face-timed with a programming question that I couldn't figure out how to answer (I have clearly been on vacation for too long). I got to the station a little late and couldn't figure out where the line up was. I saw another foreign girl standing by the exit and I thought it would be safe to assume she was also here for the ticket. Asking her for help turned out to be one of the best decisions I have made on this trip. Meet Ella, the person I will spend almost every single day with for the rest of my time in Korea.

Ella and I were both lost, but we finally figured out that the line was around the corner. We were both in the same section so we stood together to wait for out tickets. She is also a huge fan of BTS and a few bands that I really love. Her bias' are Yoongi (Suga) and Hobi (J-Hope) and she is from Australia, but she is in Korea to study for 8 months. We met two other girls named Yasmine and Betty in line. I found out Betty is from Canada and she even majored in Computer Science at the University of Waterloo (small world)! The people giving out tickets were super unorganized and it ended up taking almost an hour longer than it was supposed to. Fortunately, the four of us were able to entertain ourselves by watching the red carpet for the award show on Betty's phone. When we finally got our tickets we hopped on a bus and sat at the back together.

We chatted all the way to the award show and I was so glad that I chose to do the group bus rather than going there separately like I did for the last show. When we got to the venue we found the security area where people were lining up. This was already looking better than the Genie Awards. At the Genie Awards no one checked for cameras or stools that the fan sites were trying to sneak into the venue and the result was a whole lot of cameras all over the place while people were performing that made it impossible to see the stage. Everyone had to go through security and then line up based on their ticket number. We found a spot in line and then Ella and I ran off to grab slogans. By the time we got back Betty and Yasmine were already past security but we were able to find them again in the lines. We lost Betty because her ticket number was in a different area but Yasmine, Ella, and I were still together.

The line took forever, but we finally made it into the venue around 4:50 pm (the awards started at 5). We found a spot that was decently close to the stage and the seating area and then waited for all the artists to arrive.

We were so lucky with our spot! Not only was it a decent place to see the stage, but we were also on the side where Seventeen, Sunmi, WJSN, Monsta X, Stray Kids, (g)i-dle, AND BTS sat. This meant we had a pretty good view of BTS and where they were sitting during the show. I got distracted by the performances, but it was still cool to be so close. (Seventeen are the ones in the chairs in the first photo).

The award show was awesome. Compared to the Genie Awards they spent way less time on presenting the awards and much more time focusing on performances. There were so many great stages and I was actually able to watch them properly. A lot of the idols came out to the stage near us and we had a great view of their performance. We lost Jasmine some time near the beginning, but Ella and I were able to stick together the whole time.

Another great thing about the show was the security. They were constantly looking around for fansites and when they saw people with stools or cameras they kicked them out. There was one point where a fansite resisted and one of the security guards physically picked her up and carried her out. It was all a little crazy and intense, but it made the show much better when there weren't huge cameras in the way. Unfortunately, they couldn't get everyone and all the cameras seemed to suddenly appear when BTS started to perform. I think the security just gave up at that point because they were the last performance and everyone was pushed so close together it would've caused more trouble to remove people.

BTS raked in a ton of awards including two of the four daesangs (grand prizes). It was so amazing to be there in person to see them receive these awards. Plus, there were several times when they came out to the stage near us to speak and we could see them really well. At one point they walked out and Taehyung looked around the crowd and he stared right in our direction for a solid 20 seconds. Both Ella and I had a bit of a freak out moment after he turned back to the front.

Here are tons of super blurry photos of BTS:

BTS winning a daesang:

All the performances were great and I have a few videos on my phone of my favourites! BTS had such a cool intro video at the beginning of their performance and a cute, but weird animated VCR in the middle.

It was great to see them live again and to be able to experience this show, but the best part by far was meeting Ella. The last month of my trip would have been very different if I hadn't met her today.

After the show finished, the artists all came out to the stage to take a picture and wave goodbye. BTS were at the front so I tried to zoom in but the pictures were super grainy.

I was able to grab some of the confetti that fell at the end!

Everyone filed back outside and Ella and I grabbed some egg bread and a drink before finding our way to the bus. The award show had been 5 hours long, way longer than we expected! Security were handing out water throughout the show because it was ridiculously hot and we were all standing. I was so hungry and thirsty by the end that I almost felt like passing out, so I was glad we found a small food stall nearby.

Ella and I caught the same bus back and started planning all the things we wanted to do together. There was another award show coming up that neither of us had tickets to so we decided to meet and live stream the show and red carpet together the following week.

We got back to Hongdae so late that I was worried I wouldn't be able to catch a subway back home, but I was fortunately able to get on one. Although the show was way longer than I would've liked, I am really glad that I went. I considered cancelling my ticket after the Genie Awards because they were absolutely terrible and I didin't want a repeat of that. Fortunately, I didn't!

BTS with their awards (photos from their Twitter):

Hope everyone is doing well,

Emily

(November 28, 2018)