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span class="inline inline-left">Overwhelmed: A fan passes out on Saturday while jostling in the crowd queuing to get a concert ticket for boy band Super Junior. The Korean pop group is due to perform at Mata Elang International Stadium, North Jakarta, on April 28 and 29. JP/Wendra A. Dian Hapsari flew more than 600 kilometers from her hometown in Surabaya, East Java, to Jakarta early on Saturday just to buy three tickets for the Super Junior “Super Show 4” concerts.

The 24-year-old, who had planned to buy tickets for her two little sisters, had to return home empty-handed as she was too late to queue for the ticket sales. Dian had no idea that she had to queue for a queuing number before she could buy the tickets.

Promoter ShowMaxx Entertainment, who will bring this year’s most-anticipated concert for Korean pop (K-pop) fans, decided to start distributing the queuing numbers an hour earlier than scheduled on midnight Saturday. After getting the queuing number, fans still needed to queue to buy the tickets with a limit of four tickets each and they will still need to exchange the receipts for the actual tickets a day before the concerts.

“I had told [my sisters] not to expect too much. This is Indonesia, a country where unexpected occurrences and poor organization are very common,” said Dian, who arrived at the ticket office at the Twin Plaza Hotel in Slipi, West Jakarta, at 7 a.m. on Saturday.

“This is a country where an unprofessional organizer could be considered as normal,” she added.

ShowMaxx decided to move forward the queuing-number distribution following pressure from over 5,000 fans who had gathered at the hotel since around 5 p.m. on Friday.

Just hours after the ticket office was officially opened on Saturday at 8 a.m., the tickets were sold out, leaving fans — who are dubbed as ELFs, which stands for everlasting friends — from outside Jakarta, like Dian, heartbroken.

Dissatisfied fans, mostly female teenagers, blocked the hotel’s main entrance and lobby until afternoon, demanding explanations from the promoter for their decision to open the ticket office much earlier than the original schedule.

Dozens of teenagers fainted from exhaustion while waiting for their turn.

The promoter’s glitch in organizing the ticket sales was criticized by fans, even those who eventually managed to get their tickets.

Ovi Olivia, a student at Atmajaya Catholic University who got her ticket after having queued at the hotel since Friday evening, blasted ShowMaxx Entertainment’s decision to open the queuing number distribution earlier as it had benefited scalpers.

“Compared to ticket sales for other K-pop boy bands such as 2PM, this is really a mess,” said Ovi, who bought a super festival (free standing) ticket worth Rp 1.7 million (US$ 187), referring to a concert which had been
organized by another promoter.

“The queuing system inside [the hotel] was very bad and not well-organized. This happened because the promoter was too greedy. Why did they have to handle everything on their own, why not work together with online ticket companies such as Rajakarcis.com or others?” she complained.

The “Super Show 4” will feature Super Junior’s nine members; Leeteuk, Yesung, Sungmin, Donghae, Siwon, Eunhyuk, Shindong, Ryewook and Kyuhyun. They are expected to perform for about four hours, showcasing their hits such as “Mr. Simple”, “Superman”, “Sorry, Sorry”, “Bonamana” and more.

Helmi Sugara, media relations coordinator for ShowMaxx Entertainment, denied any wrongdoing or lack of professionalism in his company’s management of the ticket sales, saying that Super Junior’s fans outside Greater Jakarta “should not have come to the capital in the first place”.

“Today’s sale was only for Super Junior fans in the Jakarta area,” he said.

“We already established ticket offices in several provinces. We told the fans from outside Jakarta and the surrounding area that it was unnecessary for them to come here.” (sat)