La Poem's First Full Concert Scene#1

Against all odds, it finally happened.

La Poem's very first full concert was held in KBS Busan Hall, Busan on April 10 and 11. 

KBS Busan Hall, Busan

The concert tour was supposed to begin in Seoul. 

Seoul concert poster
(from La Poem official instagram)

I was holding tickets that would allow me to enter the Seoul concert venue the Peace Hall, Kyung Hee University on March 27 (Sat.) and 28 (Sun.). With tickets electronically sold already on March 3, most of the seats were sold out. For the first time in my life I purchased tickets to see the same concert for two days in a row. 

A week prior to the scheduled date, however, the concert was delayed for a week, being pushed to April 3 and 4. In the following week, it was postponed indefinitely (meaning cancelled).

This mess was caused by the social distancing measures with which the local government demanded us of complying. At the first time, the concert was prohibited because the number of people who will gather in the venue exceeds 100. A week later, it was cancelled because the venue was registered as a multi-purpose place. If the venue had been registered as a concert hall, would the concert have been allowed? I don't know... It looked as though the whole universe was doing its best to block La Poem's concerts. At any rate, the Seoul concert has not happened yet.

As soon as I heard the news of cancellation, I found myself looking for a Busan-concert ticket. Busan was the next city in which La Poem's own concert was scheduled to be held. Tickets were already open for sale, and good seats weren't available at that time. Regardless of a seat grade, I was glad to get one and hurriedly reserved round train tickets between Seoul and Busan for the day. 

Busan train station 

On April 10, the day has finally come! I went to Seoul train station in the morning and got on Korea Train Express (KTX). After spending approximately two hours and forty minutes in the train in face-mask without drinking a drop of water, I finally stepped in Busan train station.

I took the bus (number 41) at the station and arrived at the venue KBS Busan Hall. People were already standing in long line to purchase La Poem merchandise and get into the concert hall. 

I did not get in the line. Instead, I started walking toward Gwangalli beach which is close to the concert hall. In retrospect, walking was a mistake because I got pretty exhausted with walking afterwards. At any rate, I saw the ocean and walked back to the concert hall. The weather was quite windy and chilly, but the sky couldn't have been better. 

KBS Busan Hall, Busan

Back to the venue, I met my friend and her mother. A few weeks ago, I bought a Busan-concert ticket for a friend of mine who lives in Busan, with the intention of introducing La Poem to more and more people. I never expected that I myself would come down to Busan to see La Poem's concert. 

It turned out to be a funny story: I bought a ticket for my friend; she bought one for her mother; and I bought another one for myself. The three seats we had were far apart from the first to third floor (i.e., first- to third-class seats). My friend let me use the ticket I bought for her, giving me a chance to watch the performance in the first floor. My ticket went to her mother, letting her take the second-floor seat. My friend ended up watching the performance in the third floor. Here's a summary of this story, where the blue circle represents me, the red my friend, and the green my friend's mother.

The concert started at 5 o'clock. My concert story continues in the next post. 

By the way, after the concert was over, my friend's mother left a very positive comment on the concert, with her wish to see them perform again in the future. I was just happy to hear the comment and felt that I accomplished my mission -- to spread La Poem's name farther and farther.