Arashi Blast in Hawaii, Saturday 20th, 2014

[ririkit]

This is what happens when I'm stuck alone and I don't know the current wifi password. I was writing this on Saturday night and in the small hours of Friday morning, so the tense tends to skip. Essentially, any reference to "today" is Saturday and "yesterday" is Friday. It was rather late and this is mostly written as a reminder to myself, but I'm

Comments

[kanu_x]

Thank you for the concert report that took 3+ hours XD

I like reading factual reports like yarukizero's but I also really love reading reports like yours that tells of your impressions and opinions too. ^__^

[ririkit]

I was the opinion that we'll get a dvd release anyway- hopefully with all the MC segments from both nights- so there isn't really much point of writing about all of the details. After all, this was written entirely for my own memory and my strange obessions. (I really doubt that the fancams will stop a dvd release. It might delay it, but it won't stop. What's really in danger is, you know, ever having a concert outside of Japan again. But really, enforcement was so bad. I only saw one person told to stop filming, and they didn't even try to delete the photos.)

I started typing in notepad to try to organize my thoughts and the next thing I knew, it was 3 AM. So what is that sleep thing I kept hearing about?

[chibi_hime]

Thanks for the report! I totally agree that the crowd control was horrible but the concert was amazing. I got on the queue before 5:30am and there were 15 people ahead of me. But by the time the doors opened, there were about 100 people ahead of me... Everyone was hot, cranky and mad. So the "fight" that broke out was that the doors opened and suddenly a group of teenagers squeezed past the barrier on the right to cut the line. EVERYONE started screaming at them to get out until security came over. It seems that within the chaos of that day, the rumor started up that we were fighting amongst ourselves when in reality it was that we were defending our position on the line.

[ririkit]

Well, the security guys I saw were heading AWAY from the front of the line, and they were the ones I heard say there was a fight. So it was entirely hearsay, but probably not what was happening near you

[flange5]

This was a fantastic report! I went both days, and I have to agree with your assessment of the crowd control. It was honestly infuriating, and the staff seemed much more invested in controlling movement inside the barrier than outside, and apathetic in the extreme about the the chaos. I actually saw a Japanese woman end up *biting* a staff member in frustration O__o He just laughed at her. We had been in line since 10am in the sun and were nearly last in. People were crying and screaming and calling to complain, but the staff just shouted things like 'you think you could do better. You're all going to get in, so why are you upset?' I have heard that the Hawaiian Tourism industry is trying to get the 20th anniversary, too, but I suspect that that will be a tough sell with the kinds of reports and upset I imagine are blowing up the japanese blogs after that

[ririkit]

I didn't see very many staff attempting anything at all, and, considering the length of the barrier versus the length of the line, I think things were extremely short sighted. I don't think it was entirely the security company's fault, as I doubt they were the ones who set up the line configuration. Or rather, the LACK of line configuration. I was by a security staff member (who was guarding a join in the fencing) for a while once I was inside the barricade, and they said that they weren't initially supposed to be at that particular point, but there wasn't a way for them to move

[flange5]

I totally agree with you on most everything re: the organization. I think I was more mad at the security people because I conflated them with the organizers somewhat and also because some of the attitude I saw directed at people was pretty shocking: laughing at, mocking, or yelling at the crowd, refusing to acknowledge that there was a problem etc. And I didn't know about it until later, but apparently at least one of them was letting people from the line that befriended her in early because a friend of mine got in that way O__o And that's … great for my friend but really problematic

[ririkit]

Other than the bag check and the one staff member I spoke with briefly, I didn't really have much interaction with the security staff at all. It was as if there weren't any present. Completely anarchic. They didn't even check bags at the gate, which is so scary like you won't believe

[bec2224]

I'm glad you enjoyed yourself and no accidents. Thank you for sharing your wonderful experience of Arashi with us.

bec

[ririkit]

You're welcome!

It really was a blast.

[kumabi]

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience! I was following Twitter in real time and read the sudden complaints about the crowd and was wondering what was going on, and now I know. It really makes me upset that people just thought of themselves and tried to cut lines. If everyone cooperated, then things could have gone much smoother... but that one incident you said about staff trying to combine 2 lines, that was a really bad move with that many people. I hope they learn better crowd control for future events.

I really liked that you talked about the special effects, how the members moved around, and how the scenery with & without rain will look great on film. I always admire those things about their concerts and it makes me want the dvd so much more :). Your comment about Nino spitting out possible rain water made me LOL, and I can't wait to see Ohno's hair gel/product finally lose to the rain! Rain defeated the rain man ;P

[ririkit]

After a certain point, I don't think there was a way to control the lines. No one knew what was going on. There was some ass-hattery- and a lot of people just totally jumped in line, but after certain point the only really safe thing to do was to follow the crowds momentum. I was actively monitoring the situation because I understood that once the crowd to move, we had to move or else we'd get totally separated or worse