Concert-Going Shenanigans

Alright, let’s just get right into it, shall we? It’s time to start cracking down on these final entries because…well I don’t have much longer. No, I’m not dying (I hope), but if you’ve been stuck under a rock, maybe you don’t know yet that I’m leaving Korea. Heck, by the time you get to reading this in the final volume (you know, the book version), I may very well be gone. (Again, not literally.)

Whilst I’d love to share more with you about this big decision to venture back home and embrace a new chapter, that isn’t the story I’m ready to share in this entry. Instead, I’d love to dedicate an entry to concert experiences in Korea and all that comes with it. It’s definitely a long overdue tale and whilst I have shared some nuggets that came about from me venturing to a concert, none were quite as detailed as this one is going to be.

You may be asking yourself; “isn’t it as simple as buying a ticket and going to enjoy the show?”

No. No it is not.

Concert-going here is a damn Olympic sport. Heck, trying to book tickets for anything these days feels that way. My friend and I (let’s be honest, it was mostly my friend who wanted to do it) really wanted us to play tennis in Korea during her time here and trying to find and book a space and timeslot on a court proved to be harder than buying concert tickets for world-renowned K-pop stars. The slots would open at 9am everyday a week in advance for the day you wanted to book for and unfortunately…not only did bookings open and start at that time but so did our 9am classes at work - since we really wanted to book a spot for a Friday evening, but so did everyone else in the entirety of our city is seemed.

So, our quest to become the next world tennis champions ended in a very short-lived timespan, and we gave up pretty quickly. My racquet now sits on its lonesome in my apartment, waiting and longing for the day I decide to pick it up again. Sorry buddy, fat chance.

Then there’s the good ol’ baseball games in Korea. Now Gwangju’s baseball team are the Kia Tigers – evidently sponsored and backed by…you guessed it – KIA. In the past, I managed to attend a few games myself. Did I fall in love with the sport?

Absolutely not.

But was it fun and entertaining to watch the fans cheer their famous ‘custom-made’ chants for each individual player?

Well, yes. Yes, that indeed was fun.

There’s also a famous player known as Socrates on the team. (Well, hopefully he’s still part of the team – it’s been a hot minute since last I checked any Korean baseball-related news.) He’s a foreign player and so…his name is made of more than three syllables when being said in Korean.

Let’s break it down in another mini hot-fire-rapid-blitz ‘Korean-learning’ crash course, shall we?

In English, his name would be three syllables but in Korean…oh boy, prepare yourselves.

It’s five. Yes, five.

소크라테스  - that’s:  소   크   라   테   스 

Now, this is going to be very difficult to explain and get you to imagine, but most Korean names consist of three syllables and that includes their surnames. An example of this is going to given to you by naming the seven BTS members because well this is my blog and I can do what I want – lol.

김남준 - Kim Nam-Joon

김석진 - Kim Seok-Jin

민윤기 - Min Yoon-Gi

정호석 Jung Ho-Seok

박지민 – Park Ji-Min

김태형 – Kim Tae-Hyung

전정국 – Jeon Jeong-Guk

I have taken the liberty of breaking down the names for the people who absolutely cannot make sense of the Korean or even the romanised Korean, but you see – three very consistent syllables.

So then let’s go back to the baseball-talk. Like the fan-chants for the K-pop concerts held in Korea, the sports players, too have their own little chants and my oh my that’s actually pretty cute, and in the same way, it’s all consistently three syllables and quite straight forward. Everything has an order and structure to it – the three syllables making for a very rigid and effective-sounding chant…until you get to Socrates’s chant.

He’ll be having one of the funniest chants out there with his five-syllable name being said in ‘Korean pronunciation-style.’

A side-disclaimer here is that I am by no means making fun of this man or the fans, or Korean itself. It’s just absolutely the best thing ever and it’s unfortunate I can only try to explain it over this blog entry because you really have to hear it for yourself to fully understand and appreciate how legendary it sounds, albeit humorous…in a good way, of course.

Imagine the scene…there you are, sitting in the stands while the players’ names are all chanted out in a similar manner - and then you get to our man Socrates and you just can’t miss it Wherever your attention was, it’s only on him and his chant now. It’s definitely something worth being a part of. It sounds so grand and powerful. I wish we were at the stage where voice recordings could be played within written materials, but I guess technology isn’t quite there yet sigh

You’ll just have to take my word for it – it’s so great.

“Okay Tayla, so what does this have to do with concerts and what you were previously talking about?” It doesn’t have anything to do with it…I just got distracted and wanted to share that with you. Like I said, my blog, my spiel.

But okay, back to the initial topic at hand!

What I did want to mention about the baseball is that when I started attending games, the Kia Tigers were pretty subpar during my earlier days in Gwangju. I cannot speak for before that time. They lost all the games I attended – which I’ll admit, was not many. However, they ended up winning the championship last year (within Korea, because Korean baseball is and of its own league, for anyone who didn’t know,) and since then, buying tickets for any game they play has become nearly impossible since the season started now in 2025. Ah, yes, all the bad sportsman’s out there have arisen and are ready to finally support their champions…only when they’re champions. (I kid, I kid.)

However, in doing so, unfortunately half of us can’t attend games anymore since Koreans are in a whole other league when it comes to…ticketing.

Well I guess that’s a nope on the tennis and now that’s a nope on the baseball.

So what about concerts? Well, God has clearly had His hand in this because I still to this day have no idea how I have managed to score most of the concert tickets I have wanted. Ticketing, which is the act of waiting in a digital queue to buy a ticket online, is one of the most stressful things one can experience – well depending on how badly one wants the ticket that they’re ticketing for, and once again it would appear that everyone and their uncle Bob…wants a frikken ticket.

Managing to score a ticket feels like one of the greatest victories sometimes. However, that’s only one part of the greater picture. After ticketing, you have to then get to and go to the actual concert and that in itself can be quite the experience. Firstly, the concerts are usually in Seoul and someone from little ol’ Gwangju would have to travel a great distance there. (Thankfully Korea is pretty small and it doesn’t take THAT long – phew.) On top of that, you have to navigate Central City Bus Terminal if you’re taking the bus. (If you remember the tales of my venture in that cursed placed, you just know what I’m hinting at.) If you take the train however, it may be a bit easier but as a cheapskate like myself, the bus is far superior in saving me a few extra buckaroonies.

Then if you’re lucky enough, you’ll end up losing your ring when throwing away your trash and you’ll get to rummage for it through the trash while onlookers stare at you. (Ah yes, this happened at my recent trip to Seoul when I went to go see Coldplay.) Unfortunately, my pinky ring is a tinge too big for my finger and in a rage due to my disease of chronic-impatience, I aggressively flicked my trash into the bin and along with it went my ring. Thankfully my friend Chris, was with me because if he wasn’t, I may just have cut my losses and bid my ring farewell. Instead, I got him to hold his phone torch over the bin while I stuck my head in and shimmied the trash around to find my ring. Desperate times call for desperate measures, am I right?

Thankfully, I managed to find the sneaky slim gold band.

Alright, so to summarise – getting concert tickets, general tickets or even booking reservations in Korea can feel like an extreme sport - scratch that…Olympic sport, and things sell out in about five minutes. If you’re lucky and revisit the booking page frequently, leading up to a concert – you may be able to snag lost or canceled seats. It’s definitely worth trying as I’ve managed to snag some myself this way when at first I decided not to spend money on buying a ticket for a concert I thought I wasn’t desperate to go to…and then sorely regretted it. Now I just impulsively buy them. Head empty, wallet empty but Tayla full on happy juice. Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

Then, on the topic of Coldplay…

So in Korea, when you book a concert ticket – usually you get an option for a mobile ticket or a physical ticket that can either be given on-site or delivered to your address. It also depends where you’re buying this ticket from. I purchase most of mine on the Korean Interpark app, and I often opt for a mobile ticket because if it’s a pretty famous person or a K-pop concert, they’ll give you a sort of cool ‘ticket-souvenir’ at the actual concert anyway, so why bother the hassle of getting one pre-delivered? Sometimes physical tickets are also simply plain and boring so they’re not worth the additional inconvenience of even paying the delivery fee to have them.

Occasionally however, you cannot opt for a mobile ticket and it HAS to be delivered. I’ve had this happen a few times and it’s usually with international bands or singers that this happens. Coldplay tickets had to be delivered and that would be fine and everything but the unfortunate thing is that someone HAS to be there to receive them on your behalf, if not you.

Usually, someone will contact you a few days beforehand to confirm your address and then phone you the day of delivery. I have since started getting things delivered to my workplace so the administration office can accept them on my behalf since I may be busy with a class at the time of delivery. That’s also the other downside of my job. I am currently a teacher and so I cannot just answer the phone or drop whatever I’m doing and come to collect something, but delivery workers don’t always seem to register this. I also work at two different workplaces and so it can be so complicated to try and explain that over the phone when the delivery driver asks.

Once again, language-barrier struggles.

Lastly, I absolutely do not answer the phone – EVER. Unless I have your number saved, you’ll never hear or see me pick up the phone. Sorry if it’s an emergency but call centers, spam and phone call anxiety in Korean AND even in English has absolutely ruined me. I’m too polite to say no or put down so I’ll let someone waste fifteen minutes of their time and mine just to try and sell me something I have absolute zero interest in.

However, when I know I’m expecting a phone call for tickets or whatever else, I have to risk answering the phone and even if I try and send them a message to explain my Korean is not great and communicating over a message would be a lot easier and more effective, unfortunately it’s not very efficient and it’s absolutely not quick enough for the Korean on the other end of the line. (Thank you, 빨리 빨리 culture.)

With all this said and experienced, I thought to try and make this as stress-free as possible for myself when it came to having my Coldplay tickets delivered.

When I found out the time was approaching for the tickets to be delivered, I changed my address to my school’s administration office. Unfortunately, that involved me having a call and reading off a sticky-note where exactly I wanted the tickets to go and it seemed like it worked. It was a bit unlucky that I got caught in the middle of this call one minute before my class was due to start while students screamed and stampeded in the background down the hallways, but it’s cool – I managed to get it done…I thought.

Unfortunately, I got a message a few days later asking me to contact the given number. I sighed and prepared myself for yet another struggle through the Korean language…curse my nonsensical worries over sounding like an idiot while speaking a different language. I didn’t even know how to say “I was told to call this number” and honestly I couldn’t be bothered to look it up – and so I simple called, gave them my name and asked if they were Interpark and the woman on the other end of the line knew where to go from there. Basically, she wanted to confirm my address (yet again) and I told her I had asked to change it. She said it wasn’t allowed and then I told her I was only home for today if they wanted to deliver (I got to go home early that day) but surprise surprise, of course they’re not going to deliver the tickets on the day that suits me best.  

I didn’t know what to do. Unlike other delivery products, certain places will not deliver concert tickets or bank cards to a mailbox or leave it at your door. Now I can understand the bank card rule, even though you can leave your bank card at an ATM and most likely no one will dare steal it or your money. (One of the greatest things about Korea) but concert tickets??? Sure, they’re pricey, but so is the flat screen LED brand-spanking new Samsung TV you’re happy to leave outside people’s doors unattended until they get home from work to receive it. Or the self-built home sauna system that costs for sure more than concert tickets. Why can these expensive items be left outside a front door but concert tickets being left in a mailbox no one else would dare to touch is a hard no-no.

Make it make sense, Korea!?

What’s worse is that they’ll be happy to deliver the tickets or bank cards to complete strangers on your behalf – which I’m honestly thankful for because if not for the admin staff at my school, I don’t know how I would get anything delivered to me that requires someone receiving it at the exact time of delivery.

Okay let’s take it back to my phone conversation. After a fair struggle over the phone, the lady confirmed my address actually was already changed and that it would be delivered to the requested place – phew.

I then ended up typing out a note in Korean for my admin staff members just to give them a heads up for this delivery since they might find it strange that a letter for the native English teacher is being delivered to said office and not my own. I also told them that they could contact my co-teacher to come collect it once it arrived if they weren’t comfortable to hold onto it until I came back the following Monday for work. Did my co-teacher know about this? Not yet she didn’t. But that was going to be Future Me’s problem.

So yes, it was a mission and a half, but it gave me peace of mind to do all this in preparation for…

The delivery.

The day of delivery, I got yet ANOTHER call (just give me a break already) and it was the delivery man confirming the drop off point, confused that I wasn’t there but nonetheless he accepted and left my tickets hopefully where I told him to – the admin office of one of my schools.

A minute after that I got yet ANOTHER CALL. (Lord, help me at this point) and I knew I had to answer that one too in case something was wrong now, but luckily it was one of the admin staff members asking what to do with the tickets. Eventually I told them to contact my co-teacher and then in a panic, I quickly sent my co-teacher a message explaining the whole situation, realizing I never told her anything about this. Once I had sent her my message, a message from her came through simultaneously, with a picture attached of her holding my tickets. TA-DAH!

Success.

Whilst I know she wouldn’t mind at all, it feels terrible to have concert tickets, of all things, delivered to your workplace. The most unserious thing in the world – disrupting others and their workflow on your behalf, just so you can fangirl over some group, band or individual. I also acknowledge it’s not that serious though and no one really cares anyway. My co-teacher was also happy to call the last time I had this issue and change the delivery address and receive the tickets on my behalf. She took it into her own hands and made it practically stress-free for me…but I didn’t want to ask her to do that again. In a way, I wanted to show myself that I could do it all myself, even if I got stressed in the process, and hey, it worked out, huh? (Pats self on back.)

About a week after this event, a new bank card was being sent to me and I accidentally changed the address to my other school’s administration office out of confusion, which looking back on – I was quite thankful for. Working at two schools is good for something I suppose.

I can share the load of my deliveries between the two – heheh.

Alright, so maybe now you can see why buying concert tickets can be quite the Olympic sport here in Korea. Of course, it may sound like an exaggeration and for someone who can actually speak Korean and take any phone call like a champ, they probably couldn’t care less and finds this to be one of the easier tasks – but for all my anxiety-ridden, phone call-fearing besties out there – this one’s for you. I totally feel ya.

BUT, despite all that, it’s still absolutely worth it if it means I can attend a concert here in Korea, because let’s be honest – no one does concerts like Korea does concerts.

Until the next stop,

Bus Blog Driver Tay