Some fans have all the luck when it comes to meeting their favourite celebrity in public — be it at the gym, their place of work, or even the supermarket. One teenager was out at Gardens by the Bay with her dad on Saturday (Feb 4) when she ran into two members of popular K-pop boy band Stray Kids.
The fan, who goes by HjnsouI on Twitter, wrote: “This guy walked past me, mind you, it’s dark as hell here, and he was talking to a camera and it didn’t compute in my head right away – it look a second for me to realise, I turn around and it’s literally Seungjin (Kim Seung-min and Hwang Hyun-jin) with their managers.”
“Then our parents went up to them to ask for pics but the managers didn’t allow it,” she wrote, adding that it was “understandable”.
The fans were glad however that they got the duo’s attention, with Seung-min turning around and telling them: “We’re seeing you tomorrow!”
Stray Kids were in Singapore for their Manic World Tour held yesterday at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Another fan who goes by Huda also saw Seung-min at what appears to be Bugis Junction, tweeting: “Seung-min was right in front of me but like a bodoh I didn’t see because I was focused on finding Jollibee on the map.”
“He’s so cute with his poncho!” a fan replied.
‘Excitement changed to a nightmare’
Not everyone had positive memories of the Maniac World Tour, as local cosplayer and singer Kanamin took to TikTok in tears to reveal that she was scammed.
“‘Your ticket is fake,’ that’s what the staff told me when we were about to register for the VIP soundcheck party,” she said.
Answering questions about the ordeal, Kanamin said that she had bought the tickets from Carousell for the first time, as the official tickets were already sold out, and that she had checked the seller and seen good reviews before making the purchase.
She added: “Apparently, she was reselling tickets from another reseller, so she kind of got scammed as well.”
She paid an extra $100 for each of the two tickets (VIP tickets were originally priced at $348 each) and “didn’t mind spending a bit more” as it was both her and her partner’s birthday month, and was supposed to be her first concert.
She also revealed that other fans had been scammed as well, including a Japanese fan who had flown all the way from Japan to attend the concert.
Kanamin added that she had lodged a police report to hopefully get her money back, and ended the video with a clip of herself outside the concert venue listening to the soundcheck, writing: “Excitement changed to a nightmare.”
This isn’t the first time there has been a debacle over concert tickets. In October last year, fans of K-pop boy band Seventeen converged upon the Singapore Indoor Stadium looking to buy tickets after realising theirs had been voided.
“Our tickets were voided because we bought them from resellers. I believe it’s because they were staff tickets,” a fan named Syaf told AsiaOne then. “We asked the box office for tickets and they stated that they did not have any more.”
Fans warned of a particular scammer who had amassed over 60 reviews on Carousell from selling Seventeen tickets meant for staff, which were all subsequently voided.