After a grueling yearlong wait, Golden Child is coming back strong! Following the release of their first full length album on November 18, 2019, on December 12th via Twitter Woollim announced Golden Child's first solo concert, "Future and Past" for January 18th and 19th! I've waited a long time for this announcement, even blocking off majority of my calendar just for this for over a year. I've even been tracking all of Woollim's concert and fan meeting announcements with timestamps, so I would know how little time I'd have to plan a trip to Seoul. Just a few hours after the announcement, I already booked my plane tickets.
Ticketing Times (in KST):
- Fanclub Verification: Tuesday, December 17th at 2PM until end of Wednesday, December 18th
- Pre-sale: Wednesday, December 18th at 8PM until end of the 18th
- General Sales: Friday, December 20th at 8PM
Concert tickets can be purchased through Interpark; the Korean Interpark site had the concert info here, while there was no page on the Global Interpark site until about 20 minutes before the fanclub verification process began (here). It's very important for foreign fans to have the Global version because you can use a foreign credit card and you will pick up your ticket at the venue (you must bring a valid ID, and it would be safe to also bring the credit card you used). For the Korean version, you need a Korean cell phone number (or i-pin or foreign number), Korean address (where the ticket will be mailed to), and Korean credit card.
The purpose of the verification process is for official Goldenness to have pre-sale access to the concert tickets. Goldenness membership was from Melon while concert tickets are on Interpark, hence why this process is needed. Shortly after the verification process began, I logged into my Global Interpark account, accessed the concert page, and the "Golden Child 1st Fanclub Member confirmation" button appeared. I clicked it, and a pop-up window asking for my ticket number and name appeared. I entered my info exactly as presented on my Melon account, and it said that the verification has been processed. However the "Member confirmation" button still appears on the concert info page. Later on I tried entering my membership info again, and a pop-up window appeared saying "member re-confirmation with the same ID is restricted", so I figured I was good to go.
Ticketing is always scary...but I have my hopes. Goldenness 1st gen was from August 2018 and should have expired in August 2019 but Woollim didn't create a 2nd gen, therefore new fans won't have pre-sale access and (unfortunately) fans that left within the yearlong hiatus probably won't be ticketing.
A few hours before pre-sale began, the ticketing pages were updated with the concert poster and seating chart.
On Wednesday about 3 seconds before 8PM KST (3AM my time...) I refreshed the page, selected one of the two dates (I randomly chose Sunday, just whatever my mouse could reach first) and started the ticketing process! A lot of seats were available, but I learned from last time I did this for Infinite's That Summer 2: don't take time to look at the best seat, just click one and buy because the ticket can already be gone before you complete your purchase. I quickly chose a random seat from Standing B and my purchase went through! I ended up getting B 89 for the 19th.
Then I tried to get a ticket for the other date, however it kept saying I couldn't select more than one ticket. Eventually it went through, and again I quickly chose a random seat in Standing B (I keep choosing this section because it's closest to all the payment buttons), of course this one was much further back, and my payment went through. In hindsight I should have taken just a few more seconds to choose a better seat, since I was already wasting so much time with this ticket. For the 18th, I got B 239.
Within 17 minutes, there were no more seats available. Though if you refresh here and there, one could pop up. I'm just really relieved I've solidified tickets for both dates, but of course I'll continue looking to see if a better number pops up^^
In about 3 hours I received my confirmation email for the second ticket I purchased, and it took about 7 hours to receive my confirmation email for the first ticket. I emailed Interpark and they said that as long as my tickets show up in my account on their site, that should suffice.
I tried general ticketing on Friday, and was all prepared. But a few minutes before 3AM, Jangjun and Jibeom tweeted that they were ticketing too! I was completely caught off guard, and decided to also take a picture of my computer screen and comment that I'm ticketing too. Because of this, I refreshed the concert ticketing page too early and missed my timing. I entered the seat selection page for the first showing, found 127 (in either A or B, I forget), but it errored out as I tried to pay. Within 2 minutes, all tickets were sold out.
I've been checking the site on and off and would see seats open up on occasion. On December 30th I successfully found a ticket better than my original one! I got B 219 for the 18th. My confirmation email appeared within 30 minutes.
Since I had two tickets in possession for the 18th, I couldn't buy additional for the 18th as the limit is 2 per concert date. I cancelled my B 239 and received the cancellation email right away, and then I saw my cancelled seat appear for sale again, and I was able to go through the motion of buying another ticket again. Interpark (and I believe other Korean ticketing sites) have a very lenient cancellation policy. You get about one week since original ticket purchase for full refund (except for the 2,000₩ ticketing fee; the longer you wait to cancel, then the cancellation fee becomes 4,000₩ plus the ticketing fee, then 10% of the ticket (probably plus the ticketing fee), then 20%, then 30%.
To my surprise, I was able to find an even better number for the 18th! On January 2nd, I bought B 193 and cancelled my B 219 at the cost of the 2,000₩ fee.
On January 7th, I was able to snag B 178 for the 18th! The confirmation email came in about 20 minutes. I cancelled my B 193 at the cost of the 2,000₩ fee; it turns out today (the 8th KST) is the last day for this low cancellation fee. Starting tomorrow, the fee is 10% of the ticket. I received my cancellation email about 45 minutes later.
To my luck a few hours later, I saw A 139 available for the 18th! I got that and cancelled my B 178 for a full refund of 112,000₩ (perhaps because it was the same day of purchase?), receiving both confirmation emails right away.
The benefit of purchasing a ticket on the global site is that you pick it up at the venue. Therefore you can continue purchasing and cancelling tickets on the global site however you choose, whereas purchasing on the Korean site, they send you your ticket a couple of weeks in advance, and you have to go through a different process to cancel your ticket.
With the purchase of these concert tickets, I can finally revive my travel blogspot My Seoul Adventures here!
A few hours before pre-sale began, the ticketing pages were updated with the concert poster and seating chart.
On Wednesday about 3 seconds before 8PM KST (3AM my time...) I refreshed the page, selected one of the two dates (I randomly chose Sunday, just whatever my mouse could reach first) and started the ticketing process! A lot of seats were available, but I learned from last time I did this for Infinite's That Summer 2: don't take time to look at the best seat, just click one and buy because the ticket can already be gone before you complete your purchase. I quickly chose a random seat from Standing B and my purchase went through! I ended up getting B 89 for the 19th.
Then I tried to get a ticket for the other date, however it kept saying I couldn't select more than one ticket. Eventually it went through, and again I quickly chose a random seat in Standing B (I keep choosing this section because it's closest to all the payment buttons), of course this one was much further back, and my payment went through. In hindsight I should have taken just a few more seconds to choose a better seat, since I was already wasting so much time with this ticket. For the 18th, I got B 239.
Within 17 minutes, there were no more seats available. Though if you refresh here and there, one could pop up. I'm just really relieved I've solidified tickets for both dates, but of course I'll continue looking to see if a better number pops up^^
In about 3 hours I received my confirmation email for the second ticket I purchased, and it took about 7 hours to receive my confirmation email for the first ticket. I emailed Interpark and they said that as long as my tickets show up in my account on their site, that should suffice.
I tried general ticketing on Friday, and was all prepared. But a few minutes before 3AM, Jangjun and Jibeom tweeted that they were ticketing too! I was completely caught off guard, and decided to also take a picture of my computer screen and comment that I'm ticketing too. Because of this, I refreshed the concert ticketing page too early and missed my timing. I entered the seat selection page for the first showing, found 127 (in either A or B, I forget), but it errored out as I tried to pay. Within 2 minutes, all tickets were sold out.
I've been checking the site on and off and would see seats open up on occasion. On December 30th I successfully found a ticket better than my original one! I got B 219 for the 18th. My confirmation email appeared within 30 minutes.
Since I had two tickets in possession for the 18th, I couldn't buy additional for the 18th as the limit is 2 per concert date. I cancelled my B 239 and received the cancellation email right away, and then I saw my cancelled seat appear for sale again, and I was able to go through the motion of buying another ticket again. Interpark (and I believe other Korean ticketing sites) have a very lenient cancellation policy. You get about one week since original ticket purchase for full refund (except for the 2,000₩ ticketing fee; the longer you wait to cancel, then the cancellation fee becomes 4,000₩ plus the ticketing fee, then 10% of the ticket (probably plus the ticketing fee), then 20%, then 30%.
To my surprise, I was able to find an even better number for the 18th! On January 2nd, I bought B 193 and cancelled my B 219 at the cost of the 2,000₩ fee.
On January 7th, I was able to snag B 178 for the 18th! The confirmation email came in about 20 minutes. I cancelled my B 193 at the cost of the 2,000₩ fee; it turns out today (the 8th KST) is the last day for this low cancellation fee. Starting tomorrow, the fee is 10% of the ticket. I received my cancellation email about 45 minutes later.
To my luck a few hours later, I saw A 139 available for the 18th! I got that and cancelled my B 178 for a full refund of 112,000₩ (perhaps because it was the same day of purchase?), receiving both confirmation emails right away.
The benefit of purchasing a ticket on the global site is that you pick it up at the venue. Therefore you can continue purchasing and cancelling tickets on the global site however you choose, whereas purchasing on the Korean site, they send you your ticket a couple of weeks in advance, and you have to go through a different process to cancel your ticket.
With the purchase of these concert tickets, I can finally revive my travel blogspot My Seoul Adventures here!
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