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MAMA Awards 2022 has not even begun, and they are already receiving criticism from K-netizens. As one of the most coveted year-end award shows, it is slated to have big K-pop groups showcasing their best talents on stage.
Witnessing grand-scale performances, however, seems to come at an inflated cost. A user posted MAMA Awards 2022’s ticketing details on theqoo, a popular South Korean online forum on October 19, 2022. The blog post has since been viewed 74k times and has 452 comments already.
MAMA Awards 2022: Korean netizens are not impressed with the costly tickets
The announcement of the MAMA Awards 2022 brought with it a surge of excitement for the entire K-pop fandom. Ticketing details, however, have left them disappointed, especially the South Korean fans.
Early bird tickets cost 40,000 Yen (roughly 267 USD) for two whole days. General first tickets cost 22,000 Yen per day.
Criticism over high-priced tickets also stemmed from speculations that prominent K-pop groups would not be attending the festival. Hence, the price seemed too steep just to watch newcomers perform.
One netizen even commented that the ticket costs were similar to 2013’s expensive pricing when BIGBANG and EXO performed their legendary songs Fantastic Baby and Growl respectively. The South Korean netizens called them “nuts” and even mentioned that they pitied international fans who would buy them.
Multiple comments talked about the cost, and some mentioned that an average Japanese concert sold tickets at half the price. Many users also shared that they mistook the tickets to be cheap because they overlooked that the currency was Japanese Yen and not South Korean Won.
One netizen even mentioned that the price could have been justifiable if it was a concert. However, it does not make sense to push out money to see one’s favorite group perform for a mere 10 minutes.
Take a look at some of the comments below:
MAMA Awards 2022 will be returning soon: Dates and predictions
The former Mnet Asia Music Awards were rebranded into MAMA Awards starting this year. The ceremony was established in 1999 and has since become one of the few year-end award shows for which every K-pop fan waits with bated breath.
MAMA Awards 2022 will be held at Kyocera Dome in Osaka from November 29 to 30. The Dome has a capacity of 40,000 and has been a favorite concert venue for several big K-pop artists.
A chart account dedicated to posting predictions based on the early numbers of Melon Music Awards also posted the same for MAMA Awards 2022. Although the posts were deleted as one fandom noticed a discrepancy in the Artist of the Year category, the majority of K-pop stans believed that the predictions were in the correct direction.
According to the chart account, rookie girl group IVE was leading daesangs (grand prize) in two categories: Best New Female Artist (Rookie of the Year) and Song of the Year (with LOVE DIVE).
The awards ceremony will have more eyes on them than ever before, as the fourth generation of K-pop idol groups will once again be taking center stage as third-generation idols are slowly making way for the fourth-gen to rise.
Considering the strong numbers that girl groups have been generating globally, this year’s year-end award shows have high expectations from K-pop fans.
Nominations and voting process for the MAMA Awards 2022 will be released soon.
