Hunt for Blackpink concert tickets intensifies as sales open

At noon Friday, the concert organizers opened online ticket sales. However, the website crashed as soon as ticket sales opened and it took a few minutes for people to access tickets.

After an hour, tickets with the lowest price tags of VND1.2 million ($50.72), 1.8 million ($76.8), and VND3.8 million ($160.57) were sold out.

Tickets for the concerts on July 29-20 have been announced to cost VND1.2-9.8 million (US$51-$414) each. The highest-priced tickets come with several benefits, including exclusive laminates and lanyards, collections of eight photocards especially distributed to Hanoi concert-goers, unique merchandise, and early check-in.

Thanh Xuan, 35, from Ho Chi Minh City said that he planned to buy a VND1.2 million ticket, which he could afford. After r about an hour of waiting in queue, he finally entered the online counter, but all tickets priced from VND1.2 to 3.8 million were sold out (VND1 million = $42.28).

According to buyers, each successful login account has about 20 minutes to purchase the tickets. After this time, if the transaction is not completed, the system will automatically exit and they will have to wait their turn again.

At an office in Hanoi, groups of employees were on the hunt for tickets. Anh Tu, 25, from Hanoi, used two computers to increase his chance of getting the tickets.

“My group has three people and we have successfully bought eight tickets priced at VND3.8 million each,” he said.

Anh Tu opens his laptop and desktop at the same time to buy the tickets for Blackpink concerts online on July 7, 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Hoang Linh

Tu admitted that he doesn’t have experience hunting concert tickets, but he got lucky because he accessed the website quickly. Tu is a Blackpink fan and his favorite member is Jisoo. He bought the tickets for himself and his friends, not for reselling purposes.

The 2018 Mrs Ao Dai Phi Thi Thuy Linh said she was in the top 6,000 in queue, thanks to a stable Internet connection. She bought two VIP tickets for VND9.8 million ($414) – the highest price.

Singer Duc Phuc’s number in queue is 50,305 and he opened four devices at the same time to hunt for four VIP tickets. At first, the singer was worried that he wouldn’t be able to buy the tickets, but after about 40 minutes, he made a successful transaction which costs him VND39 million. Phuc is a big fan of Blackpink. He has gone to all of the group’s concerts in Thailand since 2019.

The 2014 Miss Vietnam Nguyen Cao Ky Duyen and model Minh Trieu said this is the first time that they joined the hunt for tickets with hundreds of thousands of Blackpink fans in Vietnam. After almost an hour of waiting, they successfully purchased four VIP tickets.

 

 

Hunt for Blackpink concert tickets intensifies as sales open

Trailer tour Blackpink ở Hà Nội

While many showed their successful purchases of tickets on social media, tens of thousands of people were still in the online queue waiting for their turn.

Despite spending a few days in advance to prepare for ticket hunting and constantly refreshing the website, Nguyen Huong, 39, only managed to be 45000th in the online queue. Unable to buy four VND1.8 million tickets on July 29 for her daughters, Huong had to put aside work to continue a second ticket hunt for the concert on July 30, at 3 p.m. of the same day.

Kim Chi, 33, from Hanoi, used many devices at the same time but still had to wait in the top 95,000.

Ticket sales opened a day after the organizers iME Entertainment apologized for publishing China’s infamous and illegal “nine-dash line” map on one of its websites. The “nine-dash line” has been used by China to illegally claim huge swathes of the South China Sea, known in Vietnam as the East Sea. It has been internationally condemned and rejected.

A press release issued by iME Entertainment on Thursday explained that the image in question was taken from a common website for all regional offices in Asia, not the website of the Vietnamese company.

Brian Chow, CEO of iME said that the company has quickly reviewed and replaced images that are not suitable for the sovereignty, people and culture of Vietnam.

As soon as Blackpink announced two concerts in Vietnam, the demand for tickets skyrocketed. Before the organizers announced the price, many fans said that they were looking everywhere to ensure a spot in the concert. Many services guaranteed that they can buy the tickets successfully, with prices ranging from about VND5 to 15 million depending on the position, some places offer up to VND25 million for a VIP ticket.

The organizers later announced eight price stamps for the tickets, with the highest being almost VND10 million and the lowest being VND1.2 million. Many said that it was expensive, but still chose to buy the VIP tickets to have the best view of their idols.

From left to right: Jisoo, Jennie, Rose and Lisa are the members of Blackpink. Photo by YG Entertainment

The two concerts belong to Blackpink’s world tour Born Pink, which started late last year. So far, the tour has grossed about $163.8 million, with more than 900,000 tickets sold. On average, Blackpink earns more than $4 million with about 22,600 spectators in each concert.

This helped Blackpink become the girl group with the highest-grossing tour, surpassing the records of Spice Girls ($78.2 million), TLC ($72.8 million) and Destiny’s Child (70.8 million).

Blackpink was formed in 2016 with four members Jennie, Lisa, Jisoo and Rose. After seven years, the group has achieved international success with numerous hits like “Ddu-Du Ddu-du,” “Kill This Love” and “Pink Venom.”

Their YouTube channel is the most-viewed on the platform with 30.399 billion views. Outside of music, four members of the group are also global ambassadors for famous fashion brands.