Fans tailgate, line up early for Blackpink show in Kaohsiung

Kaohsiung, Oct. 19 (CNA) Over 100 fans lined up outside Kaohsiung National Stadium early Sunday to obtain tickets for the final show of the South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink in Taiwan on their current world tour.

One of the fans in line, a man surnamed Huang (黃), told reporters that he was unable to get any tickets during regular sales, so he and his friends decided to drive from Taichung to buy tickets that became available on the day due to various circumstances such as scalping.

Huang said they started lining up at the ticket booth around 1 a.m. Sunday to try to attend the final concert.

Another Blackpink fan, a Tainan woman surnamed Lin (林), said she and her daughter traveled by train to Kaohsiung on Saturday and Sunday to try to get newly released tickets.

Lin said that while they failed to get tickets for the first concert at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Saturday, they enjoyed tailgating with other fans outside the stadium, where the concert could be heard.

The 100,000 tickets that were available for Blackpink's two Kaohsiung concerts over the weekend sold out very quickly when it went on sale on June 12.

Many of the group's fans, endearingly referred to as "Blinks," fell victim to scalping and ticket fraud, according to police who responded to reports of such issues.

On Saturday about 30 non-Taiwanese Blinks reported falling victim to ticketing fraud, the Kaohsiung City Police Department's Zuoying Precinct said in a statement released Sunday.

The statement said that a 25-year-old foreign man had claimed he could secure around 50 tickets for others.

However, he failed to fulfill his promise and could not reach a compensation agreement with his customers, leading to his arrest, the precinct added.

Meanwhile, police said some attendees were escorted out of the stadium after entering with fake tickets.

Merchandise selling like hotcakes

The dedicated fans lined up throughout the weekend not only for tickets but also to buy concert merchandise.

In accordance with the organizers' regulations, VIP ticket holders were given priority to buy Blackpink concert merchandise.

On Sunday, the first buyer was a tailgater who had been in line at the merch booth since 6 p.m. Saturday.

Several fans, who joined the line around 8 a.m. Sunday, said they each spent about NT$4,000 (US$130) to NT$20,000 on merchandise.

Some Blinks complained the previous day that after waiting for hours, they could not obtain the memorabilia they wanted because some items had sold out.

Kaohsiung is the first Asian stop on the "Deadline" world tour of the female K-pop group, which performed 29 songs at Saturday's concert.

One of the performances was a solo by Rosé, who sang "Apt.," a song she released with American singer-songwriter Bruno Mars that has been on Billboard charts worldwide for over a year.