Updated: 02/02/2025
XMAS WAS SO FUNNNNN!!! it was my first time spending the holiday alone and without any family or friends but i attended the SBS Gayo Daejeon Winter Show at Inspire Arena in Incheon so it was still pretty special. i saw so many artists in one place including artists i liked that i had not seen in Korea until that point.
some of the artists i saw include G-Dragon, 2NE1, TXT, Enhypen, Stray Kids, Itzy, Aespa, Ateez, RIIZE, Boy Next Door, TWS, NCT 127, NCT Dream, NCT Wish, WayV and so much more. the lineup was insaaaaaaaaane this year and it is every year because this is one of the shows known for the huge amount of artists that perform but i was blown away.
let's talk about ticketing. my ticket was ₩408,000 ($279.88) which is pretty good for the artists and performances i saw. i purchased my ticket through global interpark when i found out they were released (i don’t remember what day they became available but i know i didn’t buy my ticket too long after). there were 2 packages available: a shuttle service package and a shuttle service and hotel package. since those were the only 2 i HAD to choose the shuttle one. no other ticket types were offered, but i was ok with it because how else was i going back home? Incheon is about 1-2 hours away from Seoul. once i selected the package i selected my seat option. i chose the cheapest one which was the backside of the stage. i didn’t know what i selected then, but there were no seats with restricted views, so i didn’t mind. i had access to all other tickets except for the VIP ones which sold out by then. the only weird thing about this ticketing was that when i tried to go back into the queue and show my friends what it looked like, it would not let me select any tickets. this may have been because i already purchased one, but none were explicitly sold out except for VIP. it just wasn’t allowing me to select anything. i thought it could have been because they sold out between the short time i purchased them and the time i showed my friends but i doubt that. also, there was a form i was required to fill out where i selected which shuttle stop i wanted to be picked up at and at what time.
the day of the show was soooo exciting but i screwed up ngl…..
for some reason, my Naver maps decided to stop working right before i left my hotel….. i am so glad i knew Seoul well enough by this time because i had to resort to Google Maps to figure out the directions to the shuttle pick-up location and i was running late….. if you didn’t know, Google Maps does NOT work in Korea… i also looked at the directions to the pick-up spot the night before and saw it was close and walkable so that helped too…. anyway, luck was on my side that day because i made it with no problem even though i was about 10 minutes late. the pick-up location was one of the main ones so many shuttles went through there and people were coming even after i arrived….. all i had to do was stand in a short line, show the staff a QR code i had, and they gave me a wristband to board. the ride to Incheon was about 1.5 hrs.
when we arrived it was FRREEEZZZINNGGGG. somehow it was colder than Seoul… i felt like i was in the middle of nowhere lol anyway everyone walked into the venue and it was soooo pretty inside. it reminded me of one of those fancy hotels in Las Vegas. i didn’t realize how big Inspire Area was going to be. it was like a mall, hotel, concert venue, arcade, museum, and everything in one. i was shocked. since i arrived early and didn’t eat i decided to buy snacks from the convenience store. i also walked around and explored a bit before the show started.
the show itself was so good. one thing i was worried about because of my past two experiences with live music shows was that a lot of the performances would be pre-recorded and i would not see them fully. since i didn’t know that my seat was on the backside of the stage until after i purchased it, i was also worried that i would only see the backside of the performances the whole time. thankfully, none of that was true! the past two live music shows i attended were half pre-recorded with the artists coming out on the stage and just kinda walking around saying hi while their performances played on a screen. this show was completely different which i was so relieved about. all the performances except for one or two out of like 20 were live and so good. many of the performances were also facing toward the backside of the stage so i saw a front perspective a lot of the time. i did not know exactly where i was sitting either because it was a random assignment but i ended up having a really good view.
i did not know i would be spending Christmas so far from home, away from friends and family, with K-pop idols lol but it was a lot of fun and an experience i wouldn’t trade for anything.
