Fans at the ‘31st Hanteo Music Awards‘ found themselves in a bit of a pickle as the standing section turned into a safety hazard.
On February 18, the internet was buzzing with fans sharing their experiences and videos of idols looking seriously worried about the safety of the attendees at the big event.
The standing pit at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) was a hot mess, with fans squabbling and nearly causing accidents as they tried to get closer to the artist’s stage section.
As seen in the photo below, the crowd was packed like sardines in front of the artist’s lounge on the right side, making the situation even more dangerous as the pressure among the standing fans increased.
Fans were quick to criticize the organizers for not dividing the standing area into smaller sections, which could have prevented such incidents. As shown in the diagram below, there were only two audience sections on the ground floor.
Idols like aespa, ATEEZ, and ZEROBASEONE were clearly taken aback by the chaos and kept in touch with the staff to ensure the safety of the fans.
aespa‘s Karina was spotted alerting the staff about the situation and asking them to provide water for the fans who were dehydrated.
ATEEZ‘s Mingi also reported similar incidents to the staff, and ZEROBASEONE‘s Hanbin stopped his speech midway, asking fans to step back until things calmed down.
Netizens filled the comments section with their concerns, shock, and disbelief, expressing their disappointment at the lack of crowd control measures.
Comments include:
“Did they forget about the Itaewon incident already?”
“Why didn’t they manage the standing area better??”
“Who thought it was a good idea not to divide the standing area?!”
“This is nuts”
“They should have paused the show until everyone was safe”
“The organization was all over the place”
“I can’t believe how empty the left side is. Everyone wanted to see the artists on the right side up close”
“The idols look so worried about their fans”
“It’s not been long since a tragedy happened because of poor crowd control, and I can’t believe they messed up the organization this badly”
“What are the staff doing?!”
“Why didn’t they use barriers??”
What are your thoughts?
Source[1]
