The culprit? My Sony ILCE-5000. After all the hardships I’d been through to finally get hold of a ticket, I couldn't believe this was happening. I had openly taken a few photos. Then one fan-turned- concert staff came to me, grabbed my hand and said, “No camera. Only smartphone.” I told her I (genuinely) had no idea and was sorry, but she insisted for me to come with her downstairs. I assumed we were going to store my camera somewhere.
No. I was being kicked out. She took a marker pen and crossed out my ticket — essentially invalidating it. I pleaded with her that I really didn’t know that I was not allowed to take pictures: all the other fans had cameras and were taking pictures (high quality zoomed-in fan footage was subsequently uploaded on Facebook, Twitter and forums after the concert).
“You broke the rules. Out! Get out! Can you not read?” she said, showing me a poster on the wall which stated in small print that cameras were not permitted. OK, I made a mistake. But I wasn’t expecting the aggressiveness.
“This is a BTS concert —pictures have never been allowed,” she quipped, assuming that, had I been a true die-hard fan, I would have known the golden rules. “Get out! No refund! No re-entry!” she repeated, after which bouncers literally booted me out, and locked the gates behind me.
I was stunned. Aside from the financial loss, I couldn’t believe how aggressive and protective staff were. A million questions were going through my head. Was I really that stupid not to know? Why no cameras? Why me? Why not every other person in the stadium with a camera? Why no storage? Why the rule?
As I headed home, South Korean friends did little to console me. “This is K-pop — didn’t you know? We warned you this industry can be scary,” they said.