Fans injured trying to get tickets to K-pop concert in Shanghai
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Hundreds of fans were reportedly injured when they tried to get tickets to a K-pop concert featuring Super Junior, BoA and Kangta at the Expo Culture Center last May 30 as part of the Shanghai World Expo.
According to the Hong Kong-based newspaper, The Standard, “As many as a hundred visitors to the Shanghai Expo were yesterday injured – several of them badly crushed – in a frantic scramble for tickets to a free concert. There are fears there may also have been a fatality after hundreds of mostly teenagers tried to storm the South Korean Pavilion in the morning.”
The police assigned for crowd control were caught unaware when thousands of fans tried to get near the pavilion to get tickets.
Angry fans also attacked police who were trying to keep order as huge crowds gathered near the pavilion.
The official Shanghai Expo website claims that 368,200 people went to the Expo on May 30 of which 135,000 were on group tours.
“The concert at 8 p.m. featuring South Korean stars such as Super Junior, a South Korean singing group, attracted a large number of visitors, the organizers said,” according to the website.
The newspaper Shanghai Daily wrote: “Some fans even began their wait at about 11 p.m. on Saturday, hoping to get a glimpse of their idols. The crowds mainly gathered at the entrances on Changqing Road, Shangnan Road and Gaoke Road W., which are closer to the performance venue than other entrances. Their enthusiasm surprised security guards who hadn’t seen anything like it, not even on the eve of opening day on May 1.”
Tickets to the K-pop concert were not for sale. Visitors had to show their Expo tickets to get a ticket to the concert, the newspaper said.
“With half the tickets reserved for South Korean groups, only 2,500 tickets were available but at least 5,000 ordinary visitors were in the queue in front of the Expo Culture Center,” Shanghai Daily said.
The Standard said teenagers were crushed as they were locked out of the pavilion.
“As fans tried to push their way inside, visitors already inside the pavilion were also prevented from leaving, said the eye witness who was a volunteer helping at the South Korean Pavilion yesterday,” the Standard said.
The Shanghai Daily said tickets to the concert were “snatched up within five minutes, and some unlucky fans moved to the South Korea Pavilion, hoping the group would appear there.”
