On 8th of July, during my trip to South Korea, I had the great pleasure of attending he annual NBA Buzzer Beat Festival, held at the KBS arena. Even before leaving my country and coming to Korea for this summer I wanted to attend this event due to the huge names like Jay Park, Zion T, Heize, Dean, Sik-K, Groovy Park, Okasian, Bryan Chase, B-Free, Ravi etc performing.
When I arrived at the venue, I had to come 2 hours earlier to collect my ticket and there was already an at least one hour long queue, but the excitement was too big for me so nothing would bother me at that point. It was actually my first concert that I attended in Korea, and first time in Korea as well, so I didn’t know what to expect. The concert started at 1 in the afternoon and ended at 10 at night. 9 hours of standing and waiting for your favourite artists to perform is not an easy thing to do, but luckily I survived.
At the arena there were actually 2 stages, so 2 artists were performing at the same time, you had to pick which one would you like to see more. You could always go from one arena to another, even though it would take a few minutes to queue again. There were also loads of stalls with food and games that you could enjoy while listening to the artists perform. There were no sits assigned to the ticket so you could just sit wherever you liked or could. One thing I was really pissed at the beginning was that people would save like an entire row for their friends who were not even there yet so it was really hard to find a good place to stay.
Most of the time I stayed at the main stage because there was where most of the artists that I liked performed, and I was low key ( not really low key ) waiting for Jay Park who was performing last. There were a lot of rappers and singers performing, and they mostly stayed on stage about 20 minutes each, exact the headliners who stayed about 40 minutes.
From all the performances the ones that I enjoyed the most were the ones from Penomeco, Crucial Star, Punchnello, DPR Live, Dean, Heize and Jay Park. From 1 until about 5 I was able to stay in front of the stage and in this way I was able to see Penomeco, Crucial Star, Punchnello, DPR Live, Dean and other up close. It was the hardest thing to do in my life, being able to survive between hundreds of fangirls. Trust me, I’ve been to concerts before, in many other countries, but I have never experienced such craziness in my life. I do appreciate the enthusiasm, but at some point I think it got too far. I am a really small and short person, and being pushed and crushed by everyone wasn’t my ideal plan. However, I am not going to complain too much about those hardships, because at the end everything was worth it.
One artist I was really surprised about how good the performance was, it’s DPR LIVE, who sounds incredibly good live and his songs are so catchy and his communication with the public is insane. He really set the stage on fire and the crowd just went crazy for him. He performed his most famous songs, the ones where Jay Park or Dean are featuring, and I was really happy I had the opportunity to see him up close. After him, Dean came next and his performance was as perfect as I expected it to be. I knew the man could sing, but hearing his voice live is another level of beauty. Without any exaggeration, he does sound like an angel. Even better than recorded. He puts so much passion and soul into the songs it actually gives you chills. He performed his most famous songs, including “”I’m not sorry””, “”Half Moon””,””21″” and “”Pour Up”” . His interactions with the public were so good and he kept moving and dancing the whole time, making the performance even more interesting. DPR Live came on stage at the end and they have a “”Brotherly”” moment that was really sweet in my opinion.
I really wanted to see Okasian and Bryan Chase perform, but unfortunately they were performing on the second stage and it was right before Jay Park and I knew if I left the main stage I would not be able to come back in time so I chose to stay in the place where I could see properly.
At the end everyone was waiting for the headline which was Jay Park and when he finally came on stage, after 9 hours of waiting, I could say all the waiting and pain were so so so worth it. His energy and charisma are something that I have never seen before. His songs are extremely popular and good, but it is not just about that, it is also about the way he performs them, the way he engages with the audience, his laugh is adorable and his dancing skills are hard to compare to any other rappers/artists. He performed songs like “”You know””, “” Joah””, “”All I wanna do”” , “”Who you? “”, “”On it”” and at the end the most wanted song “”Mommae”” that made everyone stand up and start dancing and singing. He took his shirt off, as always, had his little dance break and started singing his most famous song. I really loved his whole performance, it was so entertaining and full of life, the dancers were incredibly talented, and he could match them all. His voice live sounds so good, I was actually surprised how good he sounds live. I was really pleased with the whole show he put up, and his last song Mommae was all I ever wanted to see. The crowd went crazy and you could hear everyone singing.
Overall, the concert was a completely success, and I am so grateful I was able to attend. I saw so many artists that I admire, and even though I could not see all of them due to the 2 stages arrangement, I still enjoyed myself and I met some really nice people. The performances were all even better than what I imagined them to be and more importantly, after so many years of waiting I finally saw my favourite artist of all Jay Park.
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