Asia: Tokyo Waffles On Placido Domingo; Fans Anger At BTS Lottery; Snow Patrol Cancels; & More

The organizing committee for the Tokyo Olympics has announced that it is “undecided” about whether or not to go ahead with a special concert featuring Spanish opera star Placido Domingo next spring as a means of celebrating next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo. 

In August Domingo was accused of sexual harassment by a number of women. The Los Angeles Opera, where he is general director, is in the midst of conducting an investigation. 

A number of concerts in the U.S. featuring Domingo have been subsequently canceled but the tenor’s European dates are still on track, as is a joint Japan tour with soprano Renee Fleming in January. 

In a statement, the organizing committee said, “Tokyo 2020 is seeking to clarify the situation.”

The committee had planned to sponsor an event in April that would bring Domingo together with kabuki star Ichikawa Ebizo as part of the Nippon Festival, which promotes “Japanese culture and diversity” ahead of next summer’s Olympic and Paralympic Games. 

A new lottery system was launched to handle ticketing for international fans of BTS by management company Big Hit Entertainment. 

However, some fans have complained that the process is too difficult, with some actually returning their tickets as a result.

The Show Biz Cheat Sheet reports that international fans of the group, whose global fan club opened in July, were not entirely clear on how to apply for tickets; namely, whether they had to include their middle names when they registered for the fan club. Some fans took action and contacted the fan club organizer, Weply, directly to find out, and Weply said that middle names were optional for non-Korean fans. 

However, at the beginning of August Weply changed its mind and announced that international fans had to include their middle names and could change their registration between Aug. 7 and 10. 

The rules then changed to require names on the fan membership card, the various organizers’ accounts and the holders’ passports must all be identical. But a lot of fans apparently didn’t receive the announcement and neglected to update their accounts. Still others misinterpreted it. And even for some fans who did update their accounts in time, the app used to carry out the changes didn’t work properly and the updates weren’t registered, meaning their middle names were still missing.

Consequently, many of these fans didn’t realize the problem until lottery winners were announced on Aug. 14 and 22, and when they realized that they might not be allowed entrance even though they won tickets, they returned those tickets. Everyone blamed Weply. 

Confusion reigned supreme when rumors circulated later that Weply said lottery winners could still use tickets without their middle names. Cheat Sheet now says that the announcement about middle names is no longer searchable on the Weply app. Apparently, this is not the first time the organizer has deleted an announcement prematurely. 

So as of the last week of August international members of the BTS fan club remained in the dark as to whether they will be able to attend the biggest event of the year for BTS or, for that matter, whether they can purchase tickets for future events using the current system. 

Snow Patrol was forced to cancel concerts in Singapore and Jakarta the weekend of Aug. 30 due to health issues. 

The band’s lead singer, Gary Lightbody, released a statement saying, “We are sorry to announce that we have to cancel our shows in Jakarta and Singapore this weekend. I have been told by the doctor that I cannot sing at this time due to a throat and chest infection. We were excited to play Jakarta for the first time and get back to Singapore. Unfortunately, we will have to wait until the next time now. I hate cancelling shows and wouldn’t do it unless there was no other option. I need to rest for a few weeks. We will come back to both places when we have a new album I promise. Love to you all. So sorry for not being able to play. Gary SP.x”

The Jakarta gig was a late addition to the band’s August tour, which included Australia, Japan’s Summer Sonic festival (as well as a stand-alone show in Tokyo), Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. The canceled Singapore show was sold out.

Inaugural EDC Korea A Hit

EDC Korea, the first time the global electronic dance festival has taken place in South Korea, was a big success when it was held at an amusement park in Gwacheon the weekend of Aug. 30. 

The venue, Seoul Land, is 30 minutes by car from central Seoul. According to the Korea Herald, a total of 96 DJ acts from all over the world, including South Korea, performed over the weekend in front of 90,000 paid customers. The organizers report that 30 percent of the audience was from overseas. 

Among the acts were Alesso, DJ Snake, Timmy Trumpet, Alison Wonderland, Deadmau5 and Yellow Claw. However, the newspaper notes that the main draw was the innovative stage design, which followed fairy tale themes on all five stages in line with the overall design idea of the theme park. 

The stages were connected to one another with “neon installation-decorated roads,” said the Herald, and ten of the park’s rides were open to festival ticketholders, which meant they shared them with families who were enjoying the park and not the music portion.

Occasionally this mixing caused some problems since festivalgoers’ costumes could be racy and those enjoying the music had access to alcohol. Police were reportedly called on a few occasions to handle intoxicated punters. 

Japan’s premiere heavy metal idol group, Baby Metal, has asked the British metalcore outfit, Bring Me the Horizon, to open for it during its fall Japan tour, which consists of four arena shows in Tokyo and Osaka in November. 

Baby Metal was reportedly impressed with the British band’s show at this year’s Glastonbury Festival, where Baby Metal also appeared. Both groups also played at this year’s Summer Sonic festival in Japan.

It’s very unusual for a major label foreign band to open for a Japanese artist in Japan, even one as big as Baby Metal. Often highly successful Japanese indie bands with enough financial resources invite foreign indie bands to tour with them in Japan, but major label acts are a different matter.