Happy summer everyone, although here in the UK it feels more like winter in Thailand but at least I get to wear my favourite hoodies. This month I returned to the UK to visit family and friends and have spent a lot of time catching up with them as well as clearing out my old belongings to sell or ship back to my new house in Thailand. I'm still taking a little blogging break but trying to share a few of my past adventures in Thailand like the NCT 127 fansign I attended before I left. It's my birthday in a few weeks and I've planned an exciting mini 'Game of Thrones' themed getaway so be sure to follow me on Instagram to keep up with my adventures.
NCT 127 are one of the most popular K-Pop groups in Thailand and have already been brand endorsers for popular snack and soda brands here, the Neo City World Tour was their first time holding a concert in Thailand, something which fans, known as NCTzens, have been anticipating for the longest time with the first two shows sold out in three minutes and a third was added which subsequently sold out in a minute, that is a total of 18,000 concert tickets sold in just minutes!
Unfortunately I wasn't able to get tickets to see them, which I was quite sad about but I knew it would be difficult given just how popular they are in Thailand, however, there was some good news for me as they announced they would be hosting a press con and fan sign at Central World mall which would be an open event for anyone to attend, so I decided to go check it out and hopefully get a glimpse of them while they were in Bangkok.
I arrived at the mall about 6 hours before the event was due to start and already a large crowd had formed, so I decided to get some lunch first and fuel myself for the long wait. I think I was stood waiting about 4 hours before I saw them and unfortunately my view wasn't that good... I was stood in a huge crowd of people on the second floor directly facing the stage but a lot of people had brought chairs and ladders to stand on so my view was blocked, however I was able to see them through my camera and managed to steal a few glances of them with my own eyes, which was only for a millisecond but made me so happy to finally see them in real life, the really do look as flawless and handsome as they do in photos, no filters or photoshop needed!
The whole event was over so quickly and lasted just over half an hour, I couldn't hear a lot of what was being said at the press con as the screams of thousands of excited fans were overpowering but I could hear them speaking a few phrases in Thai that they had learned which was met with even louder screams of joy from the enormous crowd that had gathered to see them. The fansign came next for just 100 lucky NCTzens who won a competition and were allowed to meet, shake hands and get a poster signed by all of NCT 127.
The boys were so sweet with the fans and made sure to wave to everyone who had been waiting there for them, they had come straight from the airport for this event so must have been exhausted but they seemed so excited and upbeat. NCT have visited Thailand quite a few times in the past for events, fanmeets, festivals ect. and have quite a large established fanbase here but this was their first solo concert in the country and something fans and NCT themselves have been greatly anticipating, out of all their world tour stops so far Thailand is the only one to have 3 consecutive nights of concerts to a sold out audience making it one of their biggest concerts on this tour.
Although I wasn't able to see them in concert I'm so grateful for this opportunity to see them, it was a very new experience for me as a fan to see a press con and fansign as these are things I only ever experience through others photos and videos so being there in person, feeling the atmosphere and seeing how the "pro-fans" work and are able to get those amazing shots was really awesome and I'm sure I'll be better prepared should another opportunity arise in the future.
Have you ever been to a fansign? What K-pop artists would you love to meet?
