DEAN Takes Over NYC: The Ups and Downs

Hey guys! It's KpopTokki! And I'm here to talk about my whole experience at the DEAN concert that I was able to attend on June 4th.

DISCLAIMER: This is purely my opinion and experience of the concert. I can not speak for anyone else who attended to the concert and have feelings that differ from mine.

So let's begin from the battle over tickets that went on sale on May 13th (which happens to be the day before my birthday, May 14th). SIVA GROUP were the people responsible in bringing DEAN to NYC (thank you very much :D) and they had several ticket deals that fans can possibly choose. Of course, many of us wanted Meet&Greet tickets aka the Golden Ticket! But here's the catch...those tickets were very limited. So unless you were online like 2 hours before the tickets went on sale, constantly refreshing the page, and working your hands at the speed of the lighting...getting those tickets were going to be a struggle.

Luckily for my friend and I, who woke up 2 hours early and was constantly refreshing the page, was able to obtain Meet&Greet tickets to see the lovely Dean himself. I would like to call this birthday magic xD. We started jumping around and literally fangirling like this for the rest of the day:

Now jumping to June 4th, the day of the concert, my friend and I were trying to decide what time should we actually go to the venue because the day before, SIVA Group contacted fans to notify them that the venue doesn't want fans to line up hours before the concert, which was suppose to begin at 7 pm. If you're new to K-pop or Korean concerts, most fans will line up at the venue at the buttcrack of dawn just to be in the front of the line (the fan life is serious). But thankfully SIVA Group made arrangements for the fans to have a space inside the venue at 3:30 pm. But here's the downfall of that plan...

Meet&Greet ticket holders were put in a separate room, where the Meet&Greet was to occur. But that left people, who have regular admission, to go to the stage area where Dean was suppose to perform. So by the time, the Meet&Greet session was over, there was a lot of confusion among Meet&Greet ticket holders, who also had early entry.

Another down to this concert was during the Meet&Greet session. We were told that with our tickets, we were given Hi-Touch (hi five or hand shake with the artist), Photo Op in groups of 3 and early entry into the stage area. But things became chaotic when Dean entered the room. The Hi-Touch became "if you get a chance to Hi-Touch Dean after taking your photo," which many didn't get the opportunity because there was a rush to hurry up and get the next group with Dean. The groups of 3 became groups of 5 or 6 and had to squeeze together in the picture with Dean. Then when we arrived to the stage area, General Admission (or GA for short) were already up close to the stage and leaving little to no space for early entry to actually see the stage.

And then the craziness and anger of the fan start to begin:

A representative from SIVA told us that they are experiencing severe technical difficulties and that Dean didn't feel comfortable to perform with those issues. So they were able to find another venue that will allow Dean to perform. But here's the good and bad to that.

The Good:
SIVA Group didn't cancelled the concert, which I really appreciated because I was really looking forward to seeing Dean perform. And they were able to get a venue at last minute.

The Bad:
We were told that the venue was "walking distance" which was complete bs. 20 blocks in NYC isn't walking distance. Also after the announcement was made, many fans were pushing and running down the stairs to leave the venue. Also some were running through traffic, which was incredibly dangerous for them to do.

While moving to the next venue, we were also told that the concert time was going to move to 9 pm. It was about 7:00 pm when my friend and I arrived at the next location. Half of the entire block was already filled with fans, mixed with GA and Meet&Greet ticket holders. Thankfully, SIVA gave Meet&Greet people a VVIP pass, therefore it was easier for them to separate the line.

About an hour before the concert started, it started to pour rain on us! *plays DEAN's Pour It Up* Jokes aside, everyone in the line were literally soaked! My mom told me to bring an umbrella with me, but of course I was stupid and didn't listen her... But thank god that I had a hat on because if anyone of you understand the struggle of black women... rain and natural hair DO NOT mix well. Also thank goodness I already met Dean because I didn't want him to see me as a disgusting little wet puppy. But the staff were nice enough to get us plastic bags and cardboard to cover us in the rain. I would also like to thank the staff for keeping the line in order as much as possible. Especially when certain people tried to jump the line, there was a staff member who said she will make sure that person goes to the back of the line if anyone jumps the line. And for that, I applaud her

We were finally let inside the venue, a few minutes after 9 pm. Despite all the problem that occur with certain fans, I actually really enjoyed myself. Also note to tall people, whether you listen or not, why not let short people in front of you, you can see over us anyways. I'm 4'11, literally anyone can see above me. So please do me a favor and not stand in front of short people! Thank you... Moving on, before Dean came out there were 2 opening acts. We were told about the first opening,which was Milan from the Korean Hip Hop Survival show, Show Me The Money 5. He literally gave me life when he was rapping. I especially loved when he started rapping to Zico's 'I Am You You Are Me.' But the second opening was some random guy that I didn't know (or was even Korean related, I think) so even though, his performance was okay, I found it as a waste of time. The time he was performing, Dean could've been on stage performing instead.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take pictures of Dean because it was too crowded and wild to take any good pictures. But I was able to take some okay videos of the performance, with some minor blockage by some tall people >_> Dean wasn't able to perform as many songs as I hope he would've but overall it was still a great concert. Dean has a beautiful voice and the way he handles to the crowd and feeds off their energy was far superior compared to other concerts I've been to.

I might put up some of those videos on my Facebook Page, KpopTokki https://www.facebook.com/KpopTokki/