Features
Asia: Bruno Mars, Ariana Grande, Incheon Pentaport, Kpop
Bruno Sells Out Malaysia In 45 Minutes
Chris Pizzello / Invision / AP – Bruno Mars
“KIIS FM Jingle Ball,” Staples Center, Los Angeles, Calif.
Tickets for Bruno Mars‘ May 9 concert in Kuala Lumpur went on sale at 10 a.m. Aug. 14 and according to various local media sold out within 45 minutes.
Then, unsurprisingly, many of those tickets started appearing on secondary sales sites at huge markups. The face value of the tickets ranged from RM398 ($93) to RM888 ($207), and were later going on sites like Viagogo and Carousell for at least RM1,200 ($280) and as much as RM3,400 ($792).
PR Worldwide, the organizer of the concert, which will take place at the
On its Facebook page, the company said that more tickets will go on sale later.
PR’s managing director, R. Para, told Malaysian Digest, “We expected the tickets to sell out in a day, but not in 45 minutes. It’s a good sign for the music and concert industry, which in turn has a positive impact on the tourism industry, as hotels will be booked.”
As of Aug. 16, other Asian dates for Mars’ 24K Magic World Tour include Manila on May 3 and Tokyo on April 12 and April 14.
Singapore dates are expected to be announced soon.
Grande Fans Feel Snubbed
Some of Ariana Grande‘s Korean fans were disappointed with her concert on Aug. 15, according to Allkpop.com, with some claiming the singer didn’t show up in time for VIP opportunities.
It was the first time Grande had performed in South Korea and came on the heels of three sold-out shows in Tokyo. Allkpop says Grande was scheduled to come to Seoul on Aug. 14 but didn’t actually arrive at Kimpo Airport until 5 p.m. the next day, just three hours before her concert at
Allkpop says the purpose of the delay was “to avoid the press.” Reportedly, fans who had purchased VIP tickets were going to be able to watch her rehearsal for the show, but there was none. In addition, a meet-and-greet session was “reportedly … delayed and shortened.”
By all accounts the concert itself went very well and Grande tweeted that the audience was “magical.”
However, a number of fans tweeted their disappointment, stressing that Grande seems more devoted to her Japanese fans.
Kevork Djansezian / Pool Photo via AP – Ariana Grande
“MTV Movie Awards Show,” Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Calif.
Incheon Pentaport Attendance Down
Yonhap news service reports that the Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival, which took place the weekend of Aug.12 at Songdo Moonlight Festival Park in Incheon, saw a smaller number of people this year.
According to Yescom Entertainment, the audience size was 76,000, down from last year’s 86,000. Three weeks ago, the Jisan Valley Rock Festival, hosted by the major entertainment company CJ E&M, also saw a drop in attendance.
Yonhap quoted an industry insider as saying, “We’re seeing a lot of summer music events being held around the same period, splitting up demand for large events.”
The Pentaport festival featured 70 domestic and international acts, including Bastille, Justice and 5 Seconds of Summer.
Kpop Stars For Peace
Every summer for the past seven years, a peace concert has been staged in a park in the South Korean town of Munsan, just 5 miles from the demilitarized zone that separates the country from North Korea.
This year’s version attracted special attention due to ramped-up tensions between NK and the U.S. over the former’s long-range missile tests.
The two-hour concert, which took place Aug. 12, was attended by 25,000 people, who enjoyed performances by several major K-pop acts, including Girls’ Generation, GTOB, Cosmic Girls, GFriend and others.
According to the New York Times, before the concert, an official of the local government said to the crowd, “We can’t have another Korean War. Do you agree with me?”
Later, he said, “Let’s shout ‘no’ to missiles and ‘no’ to nuclear weapons development and ‘we want peace'”
The crowd roared in approval.
One of the purposes of the DMZ Peace Concert, which is hosted jointly by the town of Munsan and TV network MBC, is to commemorate National Liberation Day, a holiday that is celebrated in both countries, as it marks the day Japan surrendered, effectively ending its 35-year colonial occupation of the Korean peninsula.
However, the organizers also hope that the music will be heard in North Korea and soften feelings there toward their neighbor to the South, which, technically, they are still at war with.
The Times also reports that this year’s concert enjoyed the participation of the South Korean Ministry of Unification, whose job is to promote and prepare for eventual “reintegration of the two Koreas into a single nation.”
An official of the ministry admitted to the newspaper that young people in South Korea don’t care about unification, which is why events like the DMZ Peace Concert have meaning. Just getting young people to come this close to the DMZ is sure to have an effect.
Consequently, many of the songs performed during the concert adhered to themes having to do with world peace and even Korean unity.
In between acts, a giant screen on stage showed scenes “envisaging a peaceful society after unification of the peninsula.” However, some of the concertgoers expressed misgivings about this scheme, at least on social media.
One 26-year-old told the Times, “Mobilizing K-pop entertainers to spark people’s interest in unification doesn’t seem quite right. It’s not their job and it puts an awkward burden on the entertainers.”