[Winter Korea Trip 2010/2011] Day 8: Crash Attempt at Music Core

Before proceeding to write on the happenings of my 8th day for this trip, let me begin by first revealing my thoughts for this day. To me, it was the lowest point of the trip. We practically wasted our efforts on the entire morning + afternoon due to our own lack of awareness, stubbornness and greediness.

Lined-up with performances from many big groups such as SNSD, T-ARA, Super Junior, 2PM, 2AM, Shinee and 2NE1, the MBC Music Core Christmas Special 2011 was definitely unlike any of the usual Music Core shows on normal Saturdays.

Deciding to join the queue early in the morning, we left our "home" at about 6am and took a taxi direct to MBC Dream Center in Ilsan. Local fans would normally take the first subway train to Jeongbalsan station (nearest subway station) and walk a short 10-minutes distance to get to the building itself. However, given the program line-up of performances for the day, we wanted to get in the queue ASAP to secure a spot.

MBC Dream Center

Unlike Singapore, queuing for such events in South Korea does not require one to stand in line for hours. Instead, they would go by the name list queue system. This system might seem confusing at first but it is really quite simple once you familiarize yourself with it. Let me attempt to elaborate more on what I have learnt about the queuing system for Music Core (it might be different for other music programs).

The queuing system defers slightly between the various fan clubs. However, the following steps are more or less the main ones to note.

Steps on How to Catch MBC Music Core live

1) Once you get to MBC Dream Center at Ilsan (getting there very early is adviced), locate the person-in-charge for the fan group you intend to follow. The person-in-charge will either be physically there or will paste a notice with instructions on how to contact him or her to register. If the person is present, ask for your name to be on the list and you're done for now. If the notice method is used (usually for larger fan-base groups), you will need to sms or call the handphone number written on the notice to register yourself into the queue. Both methods work on a roll-call basis. Do remember to take note of the announced timings of the first and subsequent roll-calls before you wander off. This is VERY important.

2) Be punctual for each of the roll-calls because the moment your name is called out and no one responses, you would be considered to have void your queue position and your name will hence be struck-off! Even the fan groups that go by handphone-registering will have someone stationed there to roll-call by the first scheduled timing.

3) Different fan groups will have different numbering system beyond this point. Closer to noon, fans will be made to line up according to the name list and reshuffled according to the independent priority system of each fan club. For example, Fan Club A might give priority according to the seniority of membership within the official fan club while Fan Club B gives priority to whoever queued first. Having the latest CD album of the artiste or group you are following is a must! Just like a passport, without it you can forget about proceeding further on (and yes they do open up every single of these albums to ensure the disc is inside!)

4) Usually after the priority shuffling, fans would just stay within the queue and not wander off as the artiste or group you are following may have a pre-recorded performance. If this occurs, only the fan club involved will be led into the recording studio during the pre-recording time slot. I am not too sure if you can get to see the live show after that.

5) Whether or not you can get a seat in the studio is only known right at the time of entry, although you can roughly guess if you can make it beforehand. MBC would just let fans into the studio according to the priority queue and "turn off the tap" once the studio is filled to the brim. Anyone beyond that can forget about entering.

And that is pretty much what you need to know about queuing to watch MBC Music Core shows live. Good luck to those who would like to attempt queuing. Let me emphasize one very important piece of advice I learnt the hard way - Avoid queuing with fan clubs whose fan-bases are of EPIC proportions such as SNSD and Big Bang. Foreigners like us simply don't stand much of a chance when queuing with such fan clubs.

Notice: instructions on how to register into the SNSD fan group name list queue

Back to our story, the first thing we did when we got there was to try and locate the person-in-charge for the 4minute fan club whom we had initially planned to follow but he was no where to be found. Instead, we manged to find the person in-charge of the SNSD fan group. Being bigger fans of SNSD, we asked if our names could be included into the namelist and bingo! In it went. Thinking that having our names on the list guaranteed our entry, we were overjoyed and thought of nothing else. A grave mistake.

It was only when we got to the the priority queue shuffling stage that we came to realize that we might not be able to enter the studio! Apparently, such large fan clubs gives priority to fan club members with Korean citizenship. Anyone else simply gets pushed wayyyyy back even if you were the first in line! 

As for the SNSD fan club queue we were with, priority ranks ranged from 1 to 4, with 1 being the hardcore Korean fans who totally worship SNSD and 4 being the dumping ground for whoever's left.

Well sadly, we were given last priority and ended up being one of the last few. Damn.

4th (last) Priority, 3rd in line

Just as we had expected, the queue got cut-off halfway during entry, way before we even got close to the entrance. Alas! We had wasted the day queuing for absolutely nothing. The studio was so packed that some fans were even sent out just before the show started! Thanks to the line-up of so many big K-pop groups, even the large MBC studio couldn't handle the massive crowd which, during normal recordings, could usually fit everyone in.


Feeling dejected, there was nothing much we could do except to watch the show from outside on television =(. Well fortunately, something good did actually manage to surface out of our tremulous day of misfortune. While queuing, we bumped into fellow Singaporean and admin of the Sones Singapore site whom was also attempting to watch the Music Core Special live. Having many things in common, we naturally cliqued together and forged our site affiliation relation in Korea itself! =)

By the time we reached back into downtown Seoul, the sun had already set. With nothing else planned for the night, we decided to take a walk around Dongdaemun. We were not exactly looking at shopping but rather, surveying the things that are being sold at Dongdaemun so that we could draft out a shopping list for our planned Dongdaemun Day (Day 11). I will be writing on Dongdaemun when that day comes.

 Doota

Although it had been a really bad day for us, we did learn a lot from our mistake. Feeling utterly disappointed for not being able to catch Music Core live, we decided to gamble with our luck once more the very next day after much consideration with the SBS Inkigayo show. We dared not even let our hopes up too high - What would the outcome be? 

And thus, we decided to have an early night once again in preparation for the anticipated queuing early the next morning. ZZZz...