Korean Music Wave 2011: The Singapore How-Tos

Korean Music Wave comes back for a 2nd installment this year on 15 Jul 2011, 730pm at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. The concert line-up includes Big Bang, 2NE1, FT Island, U-Kiss, Miss A, Dal★Shabet, Teen Top, The Boss, Touch and X-5! Concert duration is approximately 3h with Kevin (U-KISS) and Min (Miss A) hosting the show.

Ticket prices are as follows:
Standard - S$318, S$258, S$198, S$148, S$118. Free Standing in Pen A & Pen B - S$318
Add to above price $3 Booking Fee per ticket for tickets above $20 and charges include tax.

1. Getting the tickets

• Getting concert tickets in Singapore is a pretty straight forward process as there is only 1 ticketing agent; Sistic.
• Public ticket sales go on sale at least 1-2 months prior to the concert so do log in to the relevant Facebook or Twitter page for the start date of event sales.
• 3 methods to purchase tickets: call +65 6348 5555 or buy from authorized ticketing agents in Singapore or online at the website. The website is in English and you can either look for your event by the month or category.
• Locate event page and click on "Check Availability or Buy Tickets"
• Check the seating plan and decide on the category of seats you want, price of tickets will auto populate, input quantity and select your preferred seat location. Here you can either let the system pick for you or choose a section that you want.
• Click next and your assigned seat will be chosen. Click on the "View Detailed Seating" for a breakdown of where your seat will be. If unsatisfied, remove selected item from shopping cart and go back to the selection process.
• Select your delivery method and sign in to Sistic (you don't have to be a previous member).
• Following which you will be asked for your credit card details and verification.
• Ticket collection has to be done in person at the Sistic counter in front of the Indoor Stadium or at authorized ticketing agents. Photo identification and the credit card used have to be produced.
• You can also buy tickets at the venue on the day itself but there is no guarantee that you will be able to get one.

*Click on images to enlarge. All Rights Reserved to SISTIC.com Pte Ltd

2. Day of concert

• Take the Circle Line MRT (Orange line on the map) to the Stadium stop. Follow the signs leading you out and there will be ushers directing you to the Indoor Stadium.
• Do arrive at the concert venue EARLY as you will be required to queue at the respective gates printed on your ticket. There is NO wristband system. Typically the wait to enter is 10mins for sitting tickets and probably a few hours for those who have standing tickets and arrived early for a good spot.
• Fans with free standing tickets will usually enter via the ground level whereas fans with seating tickets will enter via the North Entrance on Level 2.
• Food-wise: Kallang Leisure Park is across the road and has a pretty decent selection of eateries. Inside the venue at the North Entrance, there will be a few stands selling drinks and some simple concession snacks.
• Bags will be checked so water bottles may be confiscated, alongside large food items and of course, DSLR cameras and recording devices. Be discreet!
• Sales of merchandise: KMW was selling official merchandise from YG. Items included Big Bang Official Light Stick, Official Do-rag, Big Bang Water Bottle, Big Show 2011 Pen Set, Big Show 2011 File Set and 2NE1 Official Light Stick. Refer to my post on Attending a Korean Concert for pictures of the pen set and the official Big Bang crown light stick. Only ticket holders were allowed to purchase merchandise so you had to produce 1 ticket stub per person to buy 1 thing per product category. Merchandise ran out by 4pm I heard.

3. Inside the venue

• After a quick bag check, we were ushered to our respective seats. No worries here as the Singapore Indoor Stadium is very well labelled and there are many ushers showing you to your seats. Lots of restrooms as well although there was a long queue at the beginning.
• Set list: FT Island sang Love Love Love, Hello Hello, Bing Bing Bing and I Hope. Following FT Island there was TOUCH, Dal★Shabet and X-5; each performed a total of 3 songs. Followed by THE BOSS, miss A (Breathe, Love Again, Blankly and Bad Girl, Good Girl)and U-Kiss (Round and Round, 0330 + 2 others).
• YG set: 2NE1 brought the crowd standing with Fire, Lonely, I'm the Best, Can't Nobody and I Don't Care. As you all already know I am a HUGE Big Bang fan so I was screaming my heart out at this point when Big Bang finally took the stage. They sang Tonight, Love Song, Hands Up as a group sans Daesung. Maknae Seungri really did a good job covering for Daesung in his absence. Seungri performed Strong Baby and What Can I Do. Taeyang performed I’ll Be There and Where You At. GD&TOP performed Ppeukigayo, Oh Yeah feat Park Bom and High High. It was truly amazing to see so many VIPs in Singapore wearing the Big Bang for Uniqlo t-shirts and carrying the crown light stick.

2NE1


GD & Park Bom during Oh Yeah. Park Bom wearing a Mary Katrantzou Spring/Summer 2011 dress and her Louboutins


GD and his fan-made custom earphones


Big Bang singing Love Song

4. Time to head home

• Do collect your bags if you deposited anything.
• It takes just 5mins to exit the venue and get to the Stadium station. Although the concert ended a good 3.5h later at 1130pm, the public train service was still available so no worries getting to another train station. Train services in Singapore operate till almost midnight.

I found the first 7 acts pretty boring since I am not into rookie bands so it wasn't until U-Kiss came out that I started getting more excited. 2NE1 was amazing; Park Bom has lost so much weight and her legs are gorgeous! CL speaks such good English; no wonder she is besties with Jeremy Scott and Dara is so skinny. Big Bang; totally amazing as always although not the same as Big Show 2011. Jiyongie-ah, you need to eat more! Losing too much weight!

For more fancams, pictures visit BigBangUpdates or XinMSN.