Hey, everybody!
Last Friday, Korea Festival 2013 [Vizit Korea] kicked off with a blast.
I was there for the whole day of the first day of the three-day event.
There were a lot of booths for food, games, products and lessons regarding Korean culture.
However, what I bet everyone was there for was the main event: K-pop performance!
First off, all the visitors were ushered into their respective zones, whereby the moshpit ticket holders got a chance to be closer to the stage to see their favourite idol up close.
The night started with a press conference, where all the artistes that attended the event over the three days were introduced and given the chance to answer questions from the media and also fans.
Artistes such as Lee Chaeyoung, Sung Dong Il, A Pink and NU'EST were present along with executives of the organizers.
Korean girl group A Pink are all smiles during the press conference
Korean boy group NU'EST answering questions from fans
After the press conference ended, the opening ceremony commenced.
The ceremony was hosted by a Singaporean and also a Korean, namely actress/model Lee Chaeyoung!
Lee Chaeyoung working hard
Boy group NU'EST took the stage after an opening performance from Little Angels and a few intro speeches.
Little Angels (Korea's official culture ambassador) sang a Korean folk song 'Arirang' and then a Singaporean folk song 'Can Mali Can'.
NU'EST then performed only one song, their latest single 'Sleep Talking'.
NU'EST leader JR during Sleep Talking
After that, it was time for A Pink's fanmeeting!
The moment the girls took the stage to greet the crowd, every Panda (A Pink fan) in the hall screamed their lungs out.
It has been a while since Singaporean fans were graced with the presence of A Pink in their homeland, the last time being MAMA in 2011.
The girls started off with their debut hit 'I Don't Know' which immediately got fans into a nostalgic and uplifting spirit.
A Pink performed seven songs that night, with intermissions for lucky draws.
Their setlist:
- I Don't Know
- Bubibu
- MyMy
- Interview/Q&A
- Lucky draw - six fans were chosen from ballots and were called on stage to personally receive a gift from one member each
- U You
- Lovely Day
- Interview/Q&A
- Lucky draw - each member got to choose two fans from the crowd to call up on stage to personally hand them a gift
- April 19th
- NoNoNo
A Pink member Naeun with the starting pose to I Don't Know
Fans that went up on stage were truly lucky.
They not only got to see A Pink up close, they received a present and even got a hug from the members!
Not only that, they got their photo taken with the members, as well, so that they can remember the moment for the rest of their lives.
The whole night was spectacular.
A Pink was on point in every dance, every pitch and every aspect of their presence.
Performances aside, there was one thing that really made that night very, very special.
As stated earlier, for the second session of the lucky draw, A Pink had to choose the fans that they wanted to call up on stage.
During this time, every fan in the hall screamed, jumped and peacock-ed with whichever way they could think of.
As fun as it was for the girls and the rest of the fans to see this, the members felt torn since they could only choose two each.
Eunji made this apparent when she said, "It's a pity that I have to choose among all of you. You've all been very supportive so I shall try my best to choose based on a lucky draw...".
She tried to randomly select a fan from those who were in red, but even that couldn't help her.
As each member spied into the crowd to choose their lucky fan, other members gave fan service and greeted the fans, too.
Throughout the whole session, they came to the front-most part of the stage, waved, sent out hearts and blew kisses to the fans that couldn't come up and meet them.
Later, after the lucky fans got their presents, photo taken and merged back into the crowd, Bomi also expressed that she wanted to have moments and memories with all of the fans.
So, she and the rest of the members turned around and said, "We want a photo with all of our fans,".
Then, they sat down on the stage and posed and asked everyone in the crowd to pose with them.
This, despite the fact that the MC kept pushing the girls for time constraint, went on for a good 10 minutes or so.
The girls were really grateful and appreciative of the immense support the fans had shown them and this was one way they wanted to repay all the Pandas that came.
Even after the photos were taken, they still waved and smiled at probably everyone in the audience.
It was one true magical moment that showed how down-to-Earth these girls really are and how much they appreciate all the fans.
Eventhough it was impossible to hug and thank each fan, they really wanted to convey their love.
A Pink takes a photo with the fans. (cr: Vizit Korea official Facebook)
A Pink finished their fanmeet with a fabulous performance of NoNoNo and proceeded to exit the stage, thus ending the day's events.
It was a totally awesome experience, one that I'm sure Pandas will never forget.
All photos by QZ Photography for Vizit Korea can be seen here.
All photos by QZ Photography for Vizit Korea can be seen here.
"영원히 사랑해!
영원히 함께해!
영원히 우리는 에이핌크!"
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