Asia News: Rolling Stones To Be Feted In Japan; S. Korean Ticket Sales Way Up

JAPAN

Rolling Stones To Be Feted For 60th

The Rolling Stones have announced no plans to perform in Japan for their 60th anniversary, but Japan intends to celebrate anyway. Promoter Kyodo Tokyo announced that it will stage an hour-long fireworks display at the Tokyo Racecourse on July 6 set to the band’s pre-recorded greatest hits.

Pyrotechnician Hideo Hirayama of H2 Design Associates and Beniya Aoki Fireworks have designed the show, which will feature 14,000 fireworks. Tickets will cost 6,600 yen ($51) or 7,700 yen for general seats, with box seats for groups of four going for 30,000 yen.

Of course, the band’s local record company is in on the deal and will be bundling physical copies of the new Stones live album, El Mocambo 1977, with certain seats for an extra charge. CDs still sell well in Japan.

KOREA

Q2 Ticket Sales Up 267% Over 2021

During the period cited, a total of 353 concerts were planned, which represents a 43.5% increase over the same period in 2021. A representative of Interpark told Yonhap, “We see that’s because the number of spectators that can be accommodated per show has increased as COVID rules, such as sitting apart and the capacity limit of spectators, have disappeared, and many concerts were sold out.”

The most popular concerts that sold tickets through the service in the second quarter were two May shows by K-pop star Sung Si-kyung, who hasn’t played in front of people for three years. In second place was the annual Seoul Jazz Festival, which kicks off a three-day run on May 27. Including the jazz festival, six of the top 20 shows were outdoor events. The Interpark representative said that outdoor music festivals seem to be particularly popular since some people are still wary about indoor concerts.

As proof, a May 13 article in the Korea Times listed a number of outdoor music festivals taking place this summer in South Korea, as well as Korean music festivals being planned for overseas. The indie music festival Beautiful Mint Life took place from May 13-15 at the Olympic Park in Seoul. The festival usually covers two days, but an extra day was added due to popular demand. About 7,000 people attended each day.

Then on June 18, the Dream Concert will be held at the Jamsil Arena in Seoul, one of the biggest K-pop concerts of the year. Acts will be announced in coming weeks. The concert, which is promoted by the Korea Entertainment Producers Association, was held online in 2020 and 2021.

But while more people are craving tickets for concerts, getting those tickets at reasonable prices has become more difficult, according to the Joongang Daily. The culprit is macros, which are automated programs that scalpers use to input specific commands for online ticket sales at lightning speed, thus allowing the user to get through to ticket vendors more readily and more often.

Regular buyers who input information such as performance date and time, seat location and payment methods have to proceed at their own pace. In the end, they have no choice but to buy tickets from scalpers.