K-pop stars Big Bang sell out three shows in Hong Kong
Korean boy band Big Bang will play to 35,000 fans at three sold-out concerts in December - the biggest audience for an international group since the Hong Kong Stadium stopped holding concerts in 1994.
Tickets for the first two shows by the five K-pop superstars at AsiaWorld-Expo arena were sold out in an hour when public sales opened last week.
An additional show was added and all the tickets were snapped up within three hours yesterday morning. But their sales were eclipsed by solo act Lady Gaga, who played to four sold-out houses at the same venue in May during her tour.
Big Bang fans queued up overnight outside Tom Lee music stores, which sold tickets at HK$480 to HK$1,680 - higher than Gaga's priciest tickets of HK$1,580.
"You can see the rise of K-pop. Youngsters love it," music critic Wong Chi-chung said. "Live concerts have become the way out for singers after the digitalisation of music … it's a good thing. Live music influences people and facilitates cultural exchange."
The band will perform in Hong Kong from December 8 to 10. Between May and June, its 13 concerts in Japan were attended by 150,000 people.
Wong said it was rare for foreign artists to mobilise so many fans in Hong Kong since the 40,000-seat Hong Kong Stadium banned concerts in 1994 after noise complaints.
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