Climbing Moss

Last Sunday we and 65,000 other people went to sit in Hyde Park and enjoy a rare day of sunshine, oh and a little bit of decent music. Yes! The K-Pop Sensations Stray Kids travelled to the UK for a single gig as part of the BST Festival and we were there, here’s what it was like…

Hyde Park has been running BST for a couple of years now – We had meant to go last year when Blackpink had played, but the tickets were too much for us at the time. That being said as soon as Bob had seen Stray Kids were headlining this year – that was that she knew she was getting tickets! If you don’t know who Stray Kids are then I suggest you go look at our posts….

The first hurdle was buying the tickets – We had to wake up at something like 5am get onto the fan’s presale! I bought Gold Circle before it sold out – which was an extravagance but hey when else are you going to see your Ult group? [Ult Group – Ultimate biased group]

The next hurdle was persuading a reluctant Ash to be excited….. well that never happened.

Then all that was left was the months and months of waiting – We saw The Rose in the interim, went on Holiday (hoping maybe we would be able to see the WeVerse Concert and some of our preferred groups there), then we returned and July was upon us!

The Light stick was bought, The outfit was organized, Platform shoes were purchased and the day was finally here! Plushies attached (Leebit, BbokAri and Wolf Chan) were at the ready!

Gates opened at 2pm but we got there around about 1.20pm and spent a ridiculously long time trying to navigate the nonsense that is BST. Our tickets at midnight had changed from South Entrance to North Entrance. We changed our arrival and turned up to North – only to be told we would have to walk to Gate 17 by the South entrance as there was no entrance in the North for Gold Circle.

So we started walking to the South – when we got around to Gate 19 we checked with the security who told us to go back to Gate 1, we checked with another security who seemed to know more details, who told us to go back to the south. We headed back to the lower number entrances. At Gate 19 the second time we checked and were forcefully instructed to go North again. By now we had made friends with other lost Stays and as a group we traipsed back to the North, before being told once more to go back to midway between North and South.

We were like the Grand Old Duke of York’s Men!

After 45 mins of being sent back and forth we finally found the Gold Circle Entrance, with a single tiny sign, hidden on the fence behind a security guard. You would have thought signs might have been a good idea, lots of them, not just a half hidden one. Our Wristbands were placed on our wrists and then we were ushered into security which we were told was ultra strict. Our bag was roughly checked by a bored man with a bit of stick, that he poked into the bag, (by that I mean we could have brought a camera no one would have checked.)

We entered into a vast open area – circled by a massive mix of pubs, things to do, food venues and stages with thousands of Stays interspersed throughout. It was quite amazing to see so many Skzoo’s (Band Plushies) all in one place and eye opening to see how many K-pop fans there are in London. Why we can’t meet more …. oh wait, it’s because we are both Introverts – Hopefully sometime in the future we can make some more K-pop friends.

We had a brief look at the Merch displays (which tbh were a little lackluster) A couple of very bland normal t-shirts or a Lanyard which were all BST related not Stray Kids. Instead we wandered over to the Bar named Soju (you would have expected Soju to be served here – it wasn’t! the staff had no idea what Soju was nor why people kept asking for it) So opted for a cider. We took our drinks to Gold circle and waited for the first act to begin.

We weren’t familiar with many of the artists playing (Nmixx and Alec Benjamin were the exceptions) so we weren’t sure what to expect.

Kire started on the main stage – A Taiwanese Soloist – who wasn’t bad! He was very interactive with the audience – handing out merch and even bringing one girl from the crowd up to the stage to be serenaded. It was quite fun to watch.

Then there was a little bit of wait – a bit of a wander – at this point we realized we were nowhere near the front of the Gold Circle and with the steadfast blocks of people it was unlikely we would get any closer. Instead of dwelling we looked around, taking in the outfits, the fans handing out freebies and then headed back to watch Nmixx.

Though we both know Nmixx we haven’t overly explored their discography but seeing them live perhaps it’s time to delve deeper? There voices were really strong! There performance was met with cheers and many people singing along including us. Towards the end of their set they decided to sing a couple of ‘english songs’ Queen’s – Don’t Stop Me Now and Oasis – Don’t Look back in anger – which certainly got everyone singing apart from Bob who went for a break.

After which we decided it was time for a snack – we wandered around in search of something that would grab our attention – we settled on fries and was handed a free can of alcohol free Asahi (Yuck) we had a brief look at some of the smaller stages. A carnaval type performance was on the smaller stage and someone called Bellah Mae was on the middle stage. There were supposedly 2 other stages but we never found them. We went and sat on the grass vaguely listening to the noises whilst looking around and taking it all in.

We went back to the main stage to work out who was next – Alec Benjamin – Bob has an album of and quite likes his rap/guitar songs. We heard one song and decided maybe it was time for food instead….. I guess some artists don’t live up to your ideas of them. When he was rapping it was fine but as soon as singing kicked in the tone and pitch was slipping and sliding all over the place. We went to go and grab a Burger and a Vegan Hot dog and sit on the lawn trying to tune out the main stage. It would have really helped if he wasn’t cocky as hell and telling everyone how funny he was and how amazing he is….

The Food was food – The Hot dog was really dry and fairly bland but filled a hole I guess… The Burger was nondescript and the fries were overly salty. Alec Benjamin finally finished so we grabbed another drink and decided to head back into the throng.

Next up was Maisy Peters – A small blond who was very similar to Taylor Swift in more than just style – The songs were pretty good – mostly about exes, boys and lovers who could have been (see the Swift similarities?) She did a cover of Mr Brightside to get the crowd going. To be fair she had a fairly captive audience – most people at this time were barging, fighting and solidifying their places in the various tiers of ticket – as the main act was only an hour away.

As 8pm came around the speakers began playing Stray Kids songs for the audience to sing along – and sing along they did! Quite amusingly only the English lyrics or sound effects with long gaps of silence for the Korean sections with the occasional word here and there shouted. It was loud, fun and a little chaotic – exactly what you want from a festival crowd.

During this time we had made friends with a couple of girls who were in front of us which made the whole experience so much better – If you are reading this – Hey 🙂

Suddenly the lights changed, a Giant flag emerged and the Headliners took to the stage.

Bob – I know I wasn’t as close as I wanted to the stage, I couldn’t see a great deal – a brief look here and there but mostly relying on the giant screens. Ash however could see that each member had feet – who would have known! That being said it was really good! Finally after months it was happening! Each member seemed to shine in their own way.

It was good after so long seeing them in photos or videos to actually see them in the flesh

Ash – Some people you have known for ages but some people ended up standing out after this.

Bob – My god Lee Know and Felix are Beautiful! – in fact all of them are pretty gorgeous!

The performances were amazing! The hour and a half seemed to be going at warp speed. The planned 10.30pm end suddenly changed a couple of hours before without any notifications. At 9.30pm they started to say goodbye – to which we were expecting an Encore – They did two more songs at 9.50pm we were all still hanging around waiting but sadly the lights went out, the band packed up and it just stopped thus beginning the mass exodus.

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Hopefully next years world tour will have a return London on it but if not then Bob may just have to drag Ash to Korea again to see a full 5 Hour concert 🙂