By Leirald Reyes
Photos by Jude Ng
March 19 was a long-awaited day for Filipino K-Pop fans as one of South Korea’s top boy groups, Beast, held their first fan-meeting in the Philippines at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. The popular six-member group from Korean entertainment label Cube (which houses multi-talented artists like 4minute and BTOB) last came to the Philippines in 2010 for a joint concert plus a mall tour and fans have been clamoring for them to come back to Manila ever since.
After almost six years, the beautiful night B2uties (Beast’s official fanclub name) have all been waiting for has come at last. One can feel the increasing excitement in the air as fans came in tightly holding their rosebongs, the rose-shaped official lightsticks of B2uties. Suddenly, screams erupted when the MC of the night, DJ Barbie of Energy FM’s Kpop Sarap announced the start of the show with a raffle draw for five very lucky fans to go onstage and play a game with the Beast members later on.
The music started and the crowd went wild when the Beast members came out singing their hit songs “Good Luck” and “YeY” to the very first dark grey ocean of Filipino B2uties.
The members of Beast, composed of leader, sub-rapper and vocalist Yoon Doo-joon, main rapper Yong Jun-hyung, main vocalist Yang Yoseob, vocalist and visual Lee Gikwang, and vocalist and rapper Son Dongwoon, then greeted the audience with warm smiles that showed how happy they are to finally meet their Filipino B2uties who supported them wholeheartedly all these years. Unfortunately, vocalist Jang Hyun-seung could not attend the fan-meeting. Nevertheless, the five members’ energy and enthusiasm made up for his absence.
And yes, as expected, Filipino fans never disappoint. From start to end of the show, they sang along to each song as if they knew the lyrics by heart. Beast slayed the stage, never letting the energy die down amazing performance after amazing performance. Crowd favorites were the catchy “Gotta Go To Work” and the legendary song that goes up in music charts when it rains in Korea “On Rainy Days”.
It wasn’t just a night of singing and dancing though. The five lucky fans that were picked earlier teamed up with the Beast members to play a game of cup stacking. The group also played “Kick for Gifts” where they had to kick a ball to a board of numbers which correspond to special gifts to lucky winners including signed albums, members’ selcas and Yoseob’s self-proclaimed special edition Yoseob teddy bear.
Also, in true K-Pop concert fashion, the show will not end without the fans expressing their love for their idols. Beast PH, the official Philippine fanclub, spearheaded several fan projects. Fans raised banners with the message “Our dream came true. Thank you BEAST.” A special two-layered cake was also brought onstage while fans once again waved “Happy birthday, Gikwang!” banners as a surprise for Gikwang who will be celebrating his birthday on March 30.
The night ended with all the Beast members thanking B2uties for coming and expressing their desire to have a solo concert in the Philippines again soon. It was very heartwarming when the members said “Mahal kita!” to express their love for their fans.
After that, Beast performed their last song, “Encore”. The audience obviously wanted more as screams for an encore resulted in Beast going back onstage to sing “How to Love” to end the show with a blast. Fans who had exclusive perks like hi-touch, photo op and pre-signed photos got to see Beast a little bit longer to claim their special privileges.
Beast’s first fan-meeting in Manila was a show filled to the brim with great music, fun activities and amazing idol-fan interaction. Surely, every single B2uty left the arena with smiles on their faces.
It was a beautiful night indeed.
