SHINee's fan signing event was disastrous. Bad venue, bad security system and no one was treated fairly. It was extremely badly planned out.
1. No one would stick to the "no overnight queueing" rule because they are fans, Shawols. That's one issue that I believe was overlooked.
2. The venue was small and inconvenient.
2. I assume that there is also a shortage of manpower. Everything was chaotic and it was really dangerous. No one bothered to barricade anywhere. Only hours later did they barricade the front of the queue, but good did it do? There were a lot of pushing and shoving and cutting of queues, and quarrels started to arise when it was barely past 4.30am. SHINee has a large fan base in Singapore. This was obvious when there was a huge turnout at the Changi Airport Terminal 2, whereby SHINee's fans came to welcome them to Singapore. How could so little people handle so many fans at Lot 1? Is that another mistake? The airport that day had close to 2000 fans, maybe even more. So how could the amount of fans at the fan signing be lesser or equal to that?
3. Instructions given to everyone was not clear either. The Security guards at the roof garden even lied to us that they have asked the organiser to consider letting fans without tickets to view the signing at the back of the roof garden. Fans were even scolded degrading names by some people in charge at the roof garden. The local security guards were rude. I understand that they are trying to do their job but the tactics such as shouting rudely and using the siren on the loudhailer only further annoyed the fans. They told the fans to line up in rows of five but we told them that there was no space to move at all. They did not care and continued to shout "If I don't see rows of five, the queue is not going to move" Meanwhile, I was sweating and suffocating, being shoved in every direction possible. Fans were running up and down the mall too because instructions given were incorrect. We were told by the organiser that fans without tickets could enter the roof garden, with the exception that we would not get the albums signed and all. However, the security group blocked every entrance possible and there was another jam at the area between the automatic doors and the escalator. Once again, I was stuck. I could not move front or back. Yet, they kept telling us to move back. It was dangerous too, as the barrier nearly fell over when fans protested to being kept away from seeing SHINee.
4. Who in the world was in charge then? With regards to my first point, many people queued up way before the album sales began. I arrived with a friend at 2.30 and not to our surprise, there was already a long queue. At 4am or so, we heard from other fans that someone was taking down queue numbers, hand phone numbers, NRIC numbers and names. Everyone thought that the unofficial queue had became an official queue. No one was sure who they were, since they were not wearing uniforms or name tags to show their identities. However, we all thought that they were in charge, since it was getting crowded and messy and it was about time someone in charge had to set things right. My friends and I made it in before the 1000th fan was identified. However, when the album sales were about to begin and people were heading up, it became a first come, first serve basis. People who came at 6 or 7 am shoved in to the queue and went up even before I did. The 1000th fan was identified and the queue was cut 7 people before me. The guards asked us, "who wrote those numbers down?" We replied that it was the organisers. He then replied, "Nonsense, they must be from some fan club. There's no such thing." Did that mean that the official organisers were a tad bit late, since other people had to step in to fill their shoes?
I am livid at the fact that the organisation and management of this major fan signing was such an epic failure. I had waited for 14 hours just to see the faces of my idols and sacrificed more than a day's worth of sleep only to be rejected at the entrance because of such a major error! Even if I failed to obtain the ticket, I would not have minded watching the fan signing from afar and take some photos of them. We could not leave at the entrance where we were queueing up at because the guards refused to let us through. The main entrance to reach the roof garden was at the other end of the queue. Therefore, from first, we became last. SHINee arrived late and left early. I am disappointed that I could not even see their faces or hear their voices! The point of the fan signing is to let fans see and hear them live! All I got from the fan signing was shortage of breath, hunger pangs, rage and disappointment. I left Lot 1 upset and on the brink of tears. This fan signing should have be better managed as it is an event concerning avid fans.
I apologise for my tone but this is how I truly feel. I'm confident that I am not the only fan who is enraged that the fan signing was a disaster. I hope to hear a decent explanation to fans who took the effort to go down early but did not get to see SHINee at all.
Sincerely,
Wong Shi Ting
Labels: SHINee, SHINee:Singapore
