Life Update: #KCONLA2023...Sorrows, Sorrows and Prayers

 Hi Subbies,

This month has been a roller coaster for me but this week I'm actually feeling worse than weeks before. I went to Head In the Cloud for the first time and had a fantastic time with my K-pop friend who is just amazing. I had planned the accommodation but it was hard for us to choose which package to get. The only downside was my allergies went into overdrive and I blamed Coachella because ever since I can't do more than one day at an outdoor festival without heaving over and gasping for air. Then I went on vacation from work because I had flyer miles that needed to be used before the end of the month. My co-worker was confused by the flyer miles expiration which yes is a thing. I took my mom with me but she didn't expect all the walking. 

Anyway, I wanted to talk about KCONLA2023 which I attended last weekend. I was delighted because I got to see old acquaintances and my K-pop Concert Friends whom I chat with daily on Instagram. However this year as a veteran KCONNER, I was very disappointed. Let me give y'all some background, I am a 2-generation K-pop (SM and YG were my gateways) Boomer lol, I attended the very first KCON when it was in Irvine, CA. Last year was by far the best KCON I have attended but this year CJ E&M really dropped the ball which should not be surprising because they run Mnet. Everyone I talked to I had to apologize to them because they had so many hardships at the convention including myself. I'm currently seeking a refund because the staff and security could not communicate thus me waiting in line for over 2 hours to miss the very first Meet&Greet w/ the High Wave that I paid out of pocket just to be told to get in an already long line. Mind you I did the regular M&G and Red Carpet all weekend last year with no problems because there was a pre-check. Also, there were a lot of newbies to KCONLA, and KCON on the East Coast was pretty nonexistent so we had a lot of out-of-state KCONNERs who deserved better if they only knew which is why I'm writing this post.  

Side note: Why are all these news outlets coming out about Rain (Bi) after all these years of NOW holding him accountable It is just hilarious to me ad they waited until after his performance to distract international fandoms from actual news going on in South Korea. Meanwhile the big 3 accountability where are y'all at!? If you want change hit them where it hurt, their pockets in my Orbit voice. Oh, I didn't forget the backlash from the job posting again for KCON. They forgot this America nor South Korea. 

So today I put together all the issues that came up with KCONLA2023:

1. Schedule Conflicts/ LineCon

If you attended Anime Expo this year at least you may have had the crowd to contend with the first day as usual but at KCON that was not the case.  The Convention opened up at 10AM and the first M&G was at 10AM and there was no separation like last year where you had the Line to get into Con and one for M&G. Also they keep overbooking the M&Gs and I think 4-M&Gs per day are best and should be held 1 hour after the opening of the convention. The line for the first two days took over 2 hours and some people didn't know there were three lines on the first day so some people got into the venue in like 10 minutes. My friend ended up going back to her Hotel because of just standing for hours in that line each day to get into the venue. Also don't get me started on the food court line that was a mess by the end of the Con.

a. M&G Ticketing confusion

I literally got confused about which M&G artist numbering on the e-ticket versus the schedule, simply put the artist on the e-ticket. I was literally exhausted because I had to wake up early after attending the concert the night before to get in line to get into one after another just find out that my actual M&G for day three was at 2:30 PM. I've had an issue with scheduling for a minute but the security from the last couple of years actually knew what they were doing when it came to crowd control.

2. Paying more for less

As I said before compared to last year the quality of the convention was at its worst I have seen it. I was expecting the convention to start putting out info about the convention and ticketing by mid-May and by June the tickets would go on sale however I missed those emails and didn't have any long-form info since I was out of town when they went on sale I had to pay for second-hand concert tickets which weren't anything new for me however Convention didn't account for how natural disasters and the crowd but they were probably banking on the latter to cover cost and inflation. I would have looked back at older KCONs because when conventions start they have to be cost-effective. They didn't even have RFIDs this year so we had to get new wristbands every time we wanted access. 

Also, people thought the convention was bigger this year and I was like...

The convention hall in the South Hall is way bigger and there is even more space under the hall and their side hall for events which is where the M&G, Red Carpet, and Showcase used to be held. Don't get me wrong I like West Hall which is where the original convention used to be when they moved to LACC but I've seen it look way better than what I've seen. 

a. Food Street Scrapped

So usually KCON has Chick Hearn blocked off for food vendors and for queues to get into the Crypto Arena but this time around they had like 4-5 stalls with very overprice vegetarian options on the walkway next to the Pretree Hall and they closed down when the convention centered closed and I don't think they were available during the last day because of the storm.

3. KCON Staff vs. Security Management

Management and Programming/Event Planners should be on the same page when comes to planning a convention. It is important to brief your staff on the protocols and what is going on and there were new security staff who had no clue. The security felt like they could care less about your situation and were over their management demands. Whoever CJ E&M hired for security needs to be fired. I like observing security at conventions and events they pretty much get a D grade. Personally, they should hire the security that other big conventions use. Programming didn't even tell them the convention and concert at the Crypto Arena were connected events.

a. Pretree Hall & Crypto Arena vs. Hurricane Hillary 

Security didn't want attendees at an already crowded event to sit in the hallways so I got it, The FIRE MARSHALL would be big mad which brought back memories from volunteering at Anime Expo. Security kept directing attendees to the "unused" Pretree Hall but they were using it for the Dream Stage rehearsals which they picked attendee dancers for the special stage to get noticed with their favorite artists. They kept pushing us to the far end of the room and on the day that Hurricane Hilary hit and then they had to kick us out early. They allowed us to stay in the Hallway but eventually kicked us out of the convention. Also, they closed the convention center early and the Crypto Arena wasn't really accommodating that day so we had to wait in line for over an hour in the pouring rain carrying goodies from the convention.

4. Water bottle Polices

Before we could bring water bottles into the venue as long as they were empty which was true on the first day but on the following days Security management kept changing up in the worst way. And I couldn't even bring my bottle that I had filled up in the convention into the M&G even if it was empty. Plus the artist during the High Wave formerly High Touch is behind glass anyway and per CJ E&M policies we can't even film anyway. I guess they don't have water bottles thrown meanwhile, anything can be thrown at the artist but they're not even performing lol. Also from attendees I met while sitting hallway, I heard they had to get rid of their water bladders which are pretty much accepted at any event like the ones I mentioned before. I hate that we are forced to buy overpriced water and waste plastic like this.

a. Security even threw away people's gum without warning or more like collected gum.

5. Programming

This year was just so overwhelming and the attendee I met felt the same way and even gave up trying to do all the things she planned to do. A lady in front of me in the Olive Young line had literally written out the events she wanted to attend. (Side note: The lady and I had to make a new account with Olive Young to get the freebies which was really annoying.) They had so many events and secret events with artists. Also, It would be nice to see the big timetables of the convention so no one is confused and we can better manage expectations. And they need onsite Customer Service. The only person who did their job was the person getting the visas for the artist and the concert planner they really didn't give the info booth a chance this year.

As for now, I'm still waiting for a response from AXS or KCON on the request for a refund for M&G but I might have to dispute it with my Bank because of AXS policies.