A winter tale – Korean style

When the more than 60,000 fans of South Korea’s leading boy band GOT7 filed into Bitec Bang Na last weekend, they were expecting a miracle.
Holding up banners that read “You are my miracle”, they settled into the centre’s Halls 98-99 and waited for the “GOT7 Nestival 2018: Winter Tale in Bangkok” to kick off, knowing full well the miraculous moments with their favourite boy group would soon begin. 

 

Nestival 2018 glitters in green from Ahgabong, GOT7’s official light stick.

GOT7, which made its debut in 2014, is composed, as one would expect, of seven members, namely JB, Jackson, Jinyoung, Youngjae, Yugyeom, Mark, and Bambam. And while Thai fans are particularly fond of Bambam because he is Thai, other members also enjoy huge popularity here. 
Part concert and part fan meeting, Nestival 2018 was a followup to last year’s soldout event and featured three rounds between December 21 and 23. Each round attracted more than 20,000 people, with stages extended and specially designed to ensure GOT7 could get quite close to the audience in each part of the huge hall. Fans in standing zones must have also appreciated the fact that they were given some breathing space as the organisers, 4NOLOGUE and JYP Entertainment, chose not to overcrowd the areas. 

 

Bambam, the only Thai member of GOT7

On the first day, the nestival’s fun time started with music selections prepared by famous South Korean deejays. But screams rose to the max only after a team of masked dancers fanned out along extended stage, signalling that GOT7 members were now ready to emerge. As soon as the dancers headed to the central stage, the LCD screens there moved towards one another to form a big box showing images of ice melting to reveal a picture of GOT7 behind. Then, before the audience could guess what would happen next, the screens parted to show the seven lads on stage all ready to begin. 
Attired in black, the handsome young men first served up “I am me” and “Teenager”. Next, they crooned “Fish” and “Paradise” as they moved around the extended stages to get closer to fans around the big hall, then cooled down the excitement with “Look”. 
“The Nestival is held so that GOT7 can be with iGOT7 (or Ahgase – a term used for the band’s supporters). Together, we are warm even during winter,” Bambam said in Thai. 

 

GOT7’s leader JB shows off his cool dance step.

He added that warmth was in the air thanks to the green light from the Ahgabong, as the official light stick of GOT7 is known. Other GOT7 members also warmly greeted their fans. Jackson, for example, said he noticed many beautiful girls near the stage much to the delight of the fans. 
The show then moved on to an interesting question-and-answer session with Bambam serving as the emcee. Plenty of jokes were shared among the artists and fans during the session. Here, Jackson proved the sweetest when he timidly answered that he would love to hug iGOT7 if it was snowing. 
Then it was time to play a game, with Bambam this time roped in as referee and asking his six bandmates to each choose one gift box on the table in front of them. The colour of the doll inside each box determined which team they would be in. Mark, Youngjae, and Jinyoung got together and named their team “Sawasdee Guz” while Jackson, JB and Yugyeom teamed up as “Super See Dang” (Super Red). When the Sawasdee Guz team won the rock–paper–scissors game, Bambam gleefully determined that this team would go first. 

 

A golden ball signed by Bambam and a postcard written by JB

The game had two missions and the team that took the longest time to complete them would be punished. 
The first mission was to pose like drawings shown on screens. The second mission was to remove pingpong balls from a box without using hands, which required a lot of jiggling back and forth. That goal achieved, they had to open a big box and ride their rubber horses, scooters or small bicycles to the platform to turn off the timer. Before each mission, the teams had to dance along the length of the stageway. 
Laughter filled the air throughout the game, particularly when Mark and Jackson jumped along astride their little horses, doing their best to balance while going along at a fast pace. Jackson at one point stumbled but quickly continued his journey, with the support from fans. The Super Red team finally won, partly because they had observed the techniques the first team used and were able to avoid the pitfalls. Bambam said he would reveal the form of punishment later. 
After a brief screening of memories from the Nestival 2017, GOT7 members returned to the stage in various lineups with JB, Jinyoung, and Youngjae singing “Lullaby Dark Version” and Yugyeom stealing the scene with his cool rendition of “Fine” (remix). Mark, Jackson and Bambam then shone brightly with their rendition of “Nightmare” (ATK) before the band came back together to croon the Thai song, “Mai Koey” (“Never”). They followed up with the just released “Miracle” as fans happily waved the banner “You are my miracle” and ended the segment with “Never Ever”, “Out” and “Hard Carry”. 
The giant screens switched to showing GOT7 writing postcards to their fans to wish them warm greetings for this festive season. Some of messages were written in Thai, with Youngjae spelling out “Miss You” in Thai while Bambam wrote “Happy New Year” in his native language. Yugyeom added that the fans were themselves the miracles of GOT7. 
Music returned to the central stage as GOT7 members danced their way through “Confession Song” and fans found out at last how the losing team was being punished – Mark wore an elf costume, Jinyoung was dressed up as a “Mario” and Youngjae as a “Minion”. Using the song to express their feelings, GOT7 artists then sang ‘Thank You’. 
Mark thanked the audience for making the second Nestival possible. Bambam said his band was so in love with the Nestival that they wanted to come back soon. Apparently moved by all the emotion out there, Bambam broke down in tears saying that while all band members had done their best in the hope of delivering the best show, sometimes health conditions stood in the way. Other GOT7 artists gave him a big hug, explaining to fans that Bambam always worked really hard and paid attention to all the details. The audience responded with loud applause.
Jinyoung then asked all fans to take a selfie together as a drone circulated inside the hall to capture a miracle moment. 
GOT7 closed out this very special show with “Shopping Mall”, “Go Higher”, and “Before the Full Moon Rises” throwing signed balls into the audience to fans’ delight. 
And as fans walked out of the concert hall, they were handed festive cards signed by GOT7 along with a poster of the band. Coupled with the happy time inside the hall, these items were more than enough to create a perfect winter tale for Ahgase or iGOT7.