[B.I OFFLINE: Manila Fan Meet Pre Selling] I wasn't informed it was this insane!

By  , on Jul 04, 2022

On June 12, Three Angles Production (TAP) announced that B.I will be holding his first fan meeting in Singapore and the Philippines. It became a sudden craze in the second week of June and everyone started talking and tweeting about it. 

Who wouldn't? ID's (B.I's Fandom Name) has been waiting for this moment for years!

On June 21st, the production released the details for the fanmeet, the ID's world stopped and twitter went crazy. A lot of PH ID's were protesting to hold it in a bigger venue because his fans won't fit a 2,385-seating capacity venue.   Most provincial ID's are also feeling bad about it since the pre selling is only available in Manila, plus from four (4) tickets per person, the production changed it to just two (2)!

Personally, when it came out, my mind went blank. It's been only a few weeks since I started stanning B.I and iKON and the only thing I thought then was, "I HAVE to be there, I have to get the SVIP." 

I scrolled through my debt list and thought hard about how I could get that money back as soon as possible.  Come June 22, I woke up with a barrage of WhatsApp messages from Lexi about the fan meeting. My anxiety kept growing stronger because there were only limited slots on the pre-selling date.

I had planned to be in Novotel the day before. Lexi was so worried as she isn't used to this kind of my extreme fangirling side, she was looking at rooms in Novotel and everything. SO CUTE! I told her not to worry because I'm used to this. 😉

Fast forward to the pre-selling date, my 16-year-old daughter went with me because she's good at keeping me awake. The time has come to leave the house, and I am Php10,000 short! But f*** it, I have to do this and will worry about the cash later. We arrived at the Hotel Novotel Manila Araneta at 11:17PM on July 1st. We stayed in the hotel and the waiting game started.

There were a few IDs in the lobby by the time we got there and since I am a baby ID, I gathered all the courage to speak to them and make friends. A little after 12mn were all worried because the line outside keeps growing and dispersed and that went on for a few hours. At around 5AM there were a group of people who the IDs outside the hotel somehow recognized.  I am guessing seeing familiar faces caused some sort of distress outside and made the crowd outside swarm in front of the hotel entrance.  At 5:15AM, the Novotel guards said it is time to line up outside so the 27 of us in the lobby went outside arms locked because it was too crowded already. A few moments later, we were told by the hotel guards to go back inside again because there was a miscommunication and it wasn't time to line up yet. A few minutes before 6AM, we were told we can go out to line up already, and so we did.

I can't be too sure of the time anymore, because honestly, the whole ordeal was a little blurry at the time.  I'm pretty sure all those in line can relate that the only thing we had in our minds at that moment was to secure a seat we want. Just a little before sunrise, there was a lot of pushing that I thought the hotel glass door would break! There was so much chaos that police backup even came over to the venue. I guess, everyone wants to go first because of the limited slots (300 seats for SVIP and VIP) to be sold on that day. 

I can't describe exactly how we all looked at that moment, but a perfect comparison was the Black Nazarene crowd in Quiapo. 

Moments later, the hotel manager stood at the gutter area and said to start the line there, again the stampede happened with everyone trying to secure a spot. There were a lot of conflicts on which line (there were 2) was to be considered the "correct" line.  Lexi also messaged me at around 8AM asking about a thread she saw on Twitter about a group not going out and everybody who was lined up outside was calling them out. 

After all the chaos, I got my queue number and by instructions from TAP, we should be back after two hours for the actual pre-selling.  By this time, I was 7,000 PHP.  The thing with the preselling is that the production only accepted CASH and that made it harder for me.  Lexi and I aren't big fans of holding cold cash in our bags. Having less than an hour left before 9AM, I don't know what to feel anymore, so as a last ditch effort and to test if my fangirl luck still works, I checked online if the funds I was expecting have been cleared in my account -- LO AND BEHOLD, IT WAS! I was able to complete the cash needed barely an hour before pre-selling starts.  I ran to the nearest ATM, bought coffee and went in line outside again according to queue. Thank heavens that it was a peaceful line.


Upon entering Monet 3, B.I's video is seen playing on the TV screen and you can just hear the giggle of everyone in the room. His music videos and video greeting to Philippine ID's softened the tension and eased the obvious tiredness from the crowd. 

When our line started moving forward, I see B.I's face closer on the screen. My heartbeat just won't calm down (also caused by the coffee that I just had)  I could just imagine how it would be seeing him live that close.

Being awake for 29 hours is no joke, I feel like I was working in one of our events at that time and the caffeine and adrenaline just kept me alive. I guess you could say it was worth fighting for -- or maybe I should say it was worth getting stepped on, dragged and pulled? I got our desired seats and I can now relax and wait for D-Day.
--
P.S. Lexi and I run a custom printing business (Bandal Custom Prints), so we thought of a fan project and we suggested to the TAP appointed PH fanbase of B.I via email and Twitter on June 24th, but there was no response. And because we had a lot in mind, because we are also corporate slaves ourselves, we had to put it aside. But we really wish we can give Hanbin that blanket! :(

- R
--
As of writing, Orchestra tickets are still available via https://www.ticketnet.com.ph/

You may like these posts

Post a Comment

Post a Comment