I hope the title isn’t misleading but I, unfortunately, have never been to a concert in my entire 19 years of life. I have *while silently fuming* watched people post their thrilling experiences online—more recently, the attendees of The Eras Tour—which made me crave the experience even more.
The worst part of it is….that it almost happened! But also not-so, because I definitely wouldn’t have been able to get the tickets due to a certain infamous fandom known for their very passionate love *you’ll know why in a second.* (Also, I was oblivious to the scam of a platform called TicketMaster.)
Around mid-2020, during the peak of COVID-19, the famous boyband BTS—that captured the hearts of all the girls in my school—had successfully managed to finally win me over after years of avoiding the K-POP industry. Since school was completely virtual (and no one actually paid attention, right?), I spent most of my days watching YouTube compilations of BTS, drooling over their looks, and joining other fans in watching their Vlives.
However, I was very unlucky to have joined that late. As my passion for BTS grew stronger and eventually spread to other bands and parts of the Korean industry, such as k-dramas, I eventually realized that the band had slowed down, due to the pandemic, their impending military service, and their progress to solo music. The peak of their careers was during 2019 and before, not just because of their, personally, best looks, but because of the releases of iconic songs like Idol, DNA, Boy With Luv, and Fake Love—and their previous tours and shows.
Since there had been no confirmed cancellation of their upcoming tour, I figured I could go when COVID-19 would soon end—even my parents allowed it! I was so excited!
Obviously, the excitement was short-lived. As months went by, my hope slowly decreased and eventually sizzled when it was announced that it would be cancelled. Yes, I was upset, but I figured it wouldn’t be too long until they released another album and went on tour again.
I was right about the first one…but the latter? No. In fact, they released a few songs, performed together a few times (in the U.S. as usual), and continued to release solo songs until they all enlisted in the military.
The freshman-in-high-school and almost-15-year-old me in 2020 would have never expected to have to wait until 2025, in which I would be halfway done with university and be a TWENTY year-old. It’s crazy to think how fast time went by, and since then, I’ve lowkey given up on ever attending a BTS concert. The growth and strength of this fandom is insane.
My hopes rose again once my Taylor Swift era began when she released All Too Well (10 Minute Version)—this song seriously won me over. I did love her older songs, and her new ones in folklore, but I was obsessed with this one. While commuting to university, I would look out the window of my bus and be sad for no reason whilst playing this song.
I decided that since she announced her tour, I would go! When coming across TikToks of all kinds of people struggling to get tickets, even celebrities, my hope dwindled and eventually disappeared again. Even closer to the November concert dates, I would try to get tickets from people last-minute selling, but it seemed like the entire platform was sold out or unavailable—the only alternative was to buy $500+ tickets, which I could definitely not afford.
I guess I’ll have to try harder next time; before certain individuals who purposely resale tickets on TicketMaster for monetary gain. I guess most fans have this fear of artists not touring again, such as The Eras Tour being so widely recognized and crazed over…will she have a historic tour like this again? Hopefully! But…I may be desperate, but I’m not that desperate.
Or maybe I am.