On June 29, 2024 (KST), aespa members kicked off their “2024 aespa LIVE TOUR – SYNK PARALLEL” at the Jamsil Indoor Stadium in Seoul.
Following the first night of the concert, however, some attendees took to X (former Twitter) and called out SM Entertainment for “scamming” them.
How are you going to force all the fans to stay seated while the photographers run along the stage with step stools to take pictures? Like, what the f*ck are we supposed to do?
— @mxxxxxxxxu/X
The fans, especially the ones who paid extra to book front-row seats, shared pictures of their view being blocked by alleged SM Entertainment staff…
…decked out with professional cameras and step stools/ladders.
Fans from different sections of the front and nearby rows tweeted pictures of their views of the staff…
…slamming them for being inconsiderate, to say the least.
I want to stop cursing them out, but I’m worried that this will happen again tomorrow. Haha. I don’t even know who this concert is for. Should NOT have sold these seats if this was going to happen. The same thing happened when I was at another recent SM Entertainment artist’s concert. I did not expect the same thing to happen at aespa’s, though. The fans in the front row aren’t allowed to use our cameras because it could bother the fans sitting behind us, but the staff can climb step stools with their giant gear for that official content, huh? We tried telling them we can’t see and we asked them to move, but none of them gave a f*ck. So… All I have saved are pictures like these.
— @mxxxxxxxxu/X
The apparent mistreatment of fans went viral after the pictures got circulated among social media platforms and online communities. More fans voiced their opinions about the unfairness that front-row ticket holders had to endure throughout the night.
- “First time I’ve seen anything like this happen, WTF…?”
- “Using a step stool is so extra, too… It’s not like the stage is super high. What’s wrong with them?”
- “Are they really staff? I’ve never seen staff block view like that at a concert… What are they doing?!”
- “This is terrible.”
- “Front row seats should have been sold as restricted view seats.”
- “WTF is this?! LOL. There’s no point in grabbing front-row seats if the view’s going to be blocked like that.”
- “I mean, if they really needed to photograph/videograph content, they should have made time to do so somewhere else. Not at a concert where people paid hundreds of dollars to see the stage.”
- “Wait, really? You should get a refund.”
- “Is that really staff?! This is insane.”
- “Should’ve taken the pictures and videos during rehearsals… And to think that whatever pictures they’ve taken, they’ll try to sell back to the fans!”
- “But don’t staff usually sneak past the fans, taking the picture and moving out of the way ASAP?”
- “Maybe things are different for different SM Entertainment ‘centers.’ I’ve never had this issue, but the group I follow is a male group with a different center. I mean, if this happened at their concert, I feel like the fans would have started a riot.”
SM Entertainment has not responded to the growing criticism, all the while fans remain worried for the second night of the Seoul leg of the tour.
아점시 나오락고요 진짜 pic.twitter.com/nmZZ4PcvK5
— 썬이🌅 (@babyfallgirl) June 29, 2024
Get out of my way, ahjussi, for real.
— @babyfallgirl/X
Source: theqoo
