Kpop Concert In Korea – How I got tickets
When I was living in Korea, one of the things I was able to do was attend a Kpop concert! GOT7 is a group that I am familiar with and I have actually been to one of their concerts before. It was back in Summer 2018 when they were doing a North America tour. I didn’t know much about them then but my brother really wanted a concert buddy so I went. It was a complete blast! I had so much fun despite only knowing maybe three songs lol. I became a fan directly after.
So when I heard that GOT7 was having another tour and it was happening while I was IN KOREA, there was no question about it, I was going to get to that concert. And guess who got tickets to see them for their Spinning Top tour???
MEEEE!!!
I was super nervous because I’ve heard how extremely difficult and nerve wracking it is to buy concert tickets for a Kpop act. All the blog and forums I’ve visited of people sharing their experiences of buying tickets was enough to make me not even want to attempt getting tickets. Even my brother said that when he bought our tickets back in 2018, it was a stressful experience. But at the end of the day I really wanted to go so I gathered as much information as I could and it was a success!
Because I was able to get tickets, I want to share some of the things that made it easier for me. Let me also preface this by letting you know that I am not a gold member or silver member of the GOT7 fan club. I am just a regular fan with no type of affiliations and receive no fan club perks such as early pre-order. I was also living in Korea at the time. So this post is geared more towards foreigners living in Korea that want to buy tickets from the Melon website.
So let’s get right into it.
How I Got Tickets
1.) I was living in Korea and I had a Korean phone number and bank card . Because of this, I was able to purchase from the actual Melon ticketing website. Melon expects you to have a Korean phone number for validation purposes. In Korea, you need a Korean phone number to do a lot of things online. I also had a Korean bank card. The Melon site does not allow purchases with foreign bank cards.
There is a Melon global site in English. I wouldn’t advise using it as it has significantly less features than the Korean version of the site. The English site only lists upcoming performances and that’s it, while the Korean site has soooo many other things to do, see, and engage in. This global site allows you to use a foreign bank card but you cannot get the tickets sent to you. You have to pick them up at the venue on concert day. Be sure to bring identification to verify you are who the tickets belong to.
On the Melon Global website, there is nothing to do except view a few shows and then buy a ticket. And still, the global site doesn’t even list all the performances and activities that are on the Korean site. So if you are highly dependent on English information and only use the global site, you are missing out on valuable info.
2.) I did a “practice run”. I pretended to buy other tickets for other performances on the Melon website. This gave me a feel for how the process would go. Since I have never in my life bought concert tickets before, so all of this was new to me. Practicing is very helpful so everything won’t be foreign to you during the actual checkout process.
3.) I wrote down all the words I thought were important on a piece of paper and translated them to English. The Melon website is all in Korean and the site does not give you the option in the search bar to Google translate the site. You either get the very limited English site or you’re gonna have to deal with the Korean website. The days leading up to ticket day, I clicked on absolutely every single page and link on the website to make sure I wasn’t missing any important information. Anything that I thought was important, I wrote it down and kept right next to me in case I needed it during the checkout process.
4.) I pre-registered all my information days before tickets actually went on sale. I entered my Korean phone number, my Kakao messenger info, credit card info, and the address I wanted my tickets sent to. Pre-registering your info will save you soooo much time when trying to checkout after claiming the seats you want. If you move too slow with the registration and necessary info during checkout, you can miss out on your seats and have to start all over again. Because I pre-registered all my information, I literally only had to click on the seats that I wanted, check my pre-registered information one last time, then click submit, and I was done! So easy!!
5.) I had all my items right next to me at my computer just in case I needed them: passport, ARC card, credit card (the Melon Korea site only accepts Korean bank cards), translated notes, and anything else I thought would be helpful. It turns out, that I didn’t even need these things because I pre-registered all my info. Since I had a Korean address and phone number, my foreigner information was not needed.
6.) If you’re in Korea and getting your tickets sent to you instead of picking them up at the venue, BE HOME WHEN THE MAILMAN COMES. I was at work when the tickets arrived and instead of just placing the darn envelope in my mailbox, I actually had to go to the post office to pick it up and show my passport to prove who I was, despite having the postal slip saying the package was mine. Then had to sign for it.
I had no idea concert tickets from Melon would be shipped in such a protective way. I found it surprising because any other packages, large or small, the postman just leaves it at your door. Anyone can take it. But not these. You have to be home, and you have to sign for it. You can choose to pick your tickets up at the concert venue, but that’s just one more line you will have to stand in.
Well that’s all I can think of! I hope this was helpful for those of you who are foreigners in Korea (like I was) but still want to buy concert tickets from Melon.
As a recap:
- Get a Korean phone number or use your Kakao info, or both.
- Do a practice run. Become familiar with the site and what you have to do in order to get the tickets. Melon only accepts Korean bank cards!
- Write down important words and translate them into your language if you need to.
- Pre-register all your information. This is a must!
- Have all your items right next to you just in case.
- Be home when the post man arrives, if you can.
If you went to the GOT7 concert, I hope you had fun. I sure did!
Later ~
