So i flew to Thailand (from the Philippines) just for this event. It's my first time to watch a ch3 event and I realized it's an insane event both in good and bad ways. This might be long and I am typing from my phone (because I didn't bring a laptop so forgive me for typos)
I came specifically to join the James Ji fanzone. There are two types of tickets, first is the fanzone where fanclubs have their cheers and have their own thing going on, and the other part is the free seating area. The tickets to the event are actually free. People just have to line up early (like 8-9 am ish) to get in. You'll understand later why it's free. The fanzone on the other hand depends on the fanclub because the fanclubs have their own expenses with the t-shirts fan gear, tarps, displays, light sticks, etc. Registration and call times for that one is different too. The fanclub operation starts months before the event and gets more and more busy to the days leading to the event. I arrived on Friday to help in setting up, and the actors are practicing all day at the stadium (till wee hours of the morning) for the event. The fanclub staff don't sleep at all. It's such an organized activity, i never imagined it to be like that, but it's like a war with provisions and arming your soldiers, etc. The tiniest details are ironed out, with the names in the tumblers, the food delivery, the cues, etc. I was just there mostly helping with the pompoms in JamesJi's fanzone. Damn that thing was hard to make!
Anyway, come event day, we were made to go in the stadium at 10 am (but fanclub registration, etc was about 8 am). I don't know for the other fanclubs but james came and cheered his fanclub before we went in and he also provided some of the fan items. (he designed the costume even haha) at first i was iffy about the straw hats but oh boy. Had it been a baseball cap, we would have died. The straw hat lets air circulate at least.
Anyway, here's the crazy part. So the fans are herded inside the stadium right, and they sit at about 1030-11 am and it's so frickin hot. It was 33 degrees Celsius in AccuWeather but i swear it felt like 40 because we were under the sun 90% of the time. Like insane bright hot sunshine. And the fans were just sitting there, roasting while there's really nothing in the stadium. They play the behind the scenes videos in the big monitor in the stadium but what the heck, you can watch it from your tv and not under the hot sun. Well anyway, the fanclub staff are soooooooo busy as they have to keep the fans hydrated and alive. Like there was a constant supply of ice and water and soft drinks and there's an assembly line set up for getting the ice, putting it in the tumbler, then delivering it, then refilling it. It's a war i tell you. And then food from ch3 came, but still, while the fans are in the middle of the heat, we have to keep them fed and hydrated. There were several meals, and some of them were sponsored by James I think, though i am not so clear on the details, but I imagine he's thankful to his fans because seriously, i cannot overemphasize how hot and near life threatening that heat is. Someone actually had a heat stroke from our fanzone (actually not sure of what the diagnosis was) while James Ji and co were performing (haha talk about timing) and the fanclub was so organized like no one panicked (maybe only I did hahahaha) and first aid was given, i mean, it's the time when everyone was supposed to be looking at james because he finally came out, but the fan staff (these are the hardcore fans) just gave first aid and did all they can to help the auntie and the medics came and she was saved.
The artists come out at like what, 2? 3 pm? The reason why the dance numbers are so long is because the people in the fanzone are bored out of their minds in the heat and they have to get their patience's worth. The mood really changed when they started the music and the dancing and the heat became tolerable at least because everyone got pumped and cheering and all that. The sad part is that the stage is actually facing the free seating portion and the view is quite far from the fanzone area so we just really watch it from the monitor. But the actors do come around in the vehicle thingies and that's when they wave and show love to the fans. And the fans get really pumped when they see their idols come out. I actually liked their costumes, i think all that heat made everything that shines and glitters look pretty. The costumes were carnival inspired so it had that morning version of greatest showman or something going on.
About the fanzone, James Ji and Nadech's fanzones are right beside each other and the costumes are a bit similar. Actually going up the stadium, I actually got confused and followed the Nadech line because i couldn't read thai *sweatdrop* Then after Nadech's is Taew's. Beside JamesJi's is Mint FC. Then the big chunk of green team is Pope and of course PopeBella. I am not sure if Jiranee contingent was still deployed, as they have been in the past years, but i didn't see any Jiranee shirts or posters. So it's really PopeBella now. Anyway, i digress, so Pope's fan zone is hardcore because they even have drums and everything. And they really go crazy and loud when something Pope comes out and even when Pope had that awkward dance going on, the fans were really going wild. I dunno, i just find it really adorable because Pope really doesn't seem to be the performer type *Sweatdrop*
Mario is so loved, like all the fanzones are cheering for him. And seeing him up there made me realize why. He really connects with the fans and doesn't hold back on fanservice. He really looks like he is having fun and reaching out to everyone. Kim was glowing beside him. I have to be honest, i didn't really find Kim that mind blowingly beautiful but she is so damn pretty in real life (well, through binoculars at least) i was actually surprised that she's so much whiter compared to Yaya and she really looked Caucasian. Yaya still had asian features and she's as pretty as she is on tv. She had a lot of advertisements playing in the whole course of the event and like Mario, all the fanzones cheered for her.
Anyway, i didn't really get to watch the performances because we were busy with the food and the logistics and all that but the songs are really good to keep the energy going. Of course i am biased and I'll say James Ji, Boy Pakorn, Alek T. and Great's performance is the best but it's probably the reason why it isn't getting published in YouTube with all that grinding hahahaha. I didn't get to watch it because of the incident i mentioned earlier, but even with just the music it was really full of energy. Watching the clips in Twitter just made me love it all the more.
The soccer match was at around 4 or 5 pm, just near the sunset - understandably because we wouldn't want our Pra'eks to get burned. Again Pope's FC was wild wild wild because Pope was on fire, as always. I agree with the comment that Pink team was all over the place. James Ji.... He isn't good, as all his FCs know, but he tries
In the halftime mark (after pink got pulverized) there was a halftime show with all the girls. Again, I agree, Taew is such a good dancer. Even better than Ice who supposedly had this dance thin going on, but it may also be the costumes. I mean, it. Looked like a corset thing and their headpieces seemed to be at the brink of falling off. There was one part where Taew actually slipped in the stairs and almost fell but was quickly helped by the girls. And she just continued dancing like it was nothing. The boys in the pink team are hella funny, as they fanboyed the girls when they were dancing.
Then after the halftime show was practice again. You already know that there's going to be a kickoff because the representatives practiced free kicks with the goalie.
The second half was played by the second leads *sweatdrop* and can i just say Pai Visarut is so damn hot. Like he's the epitome of tall dark and handsome. Diew Suriyon is also hot but he is more of boy next door hot.
Anyway, by some *strange twist of fate* pink team actually scored more hahaha so there was a kickoff.
The highlights for me are that playful exchange between great and boy. Great clearly let Boy score and Great did a somersault before kicking the ball to Boy (who didn't get to block it, as expected). Mark removed his shirt and yeah he was buff, but when the guy from the pink team removed his shirt, he was way more buff (for all his buffness, i can't remember who it was..... Sorry) after that, Lek T. had to do the free kick, but he was already getting teased that he will miss. And when he did miss, he pulled his shorts down instead of removing his shirt, unlike the two earlier guys
The part where Pope missed is so damn funny. The green team ran after him and they were going to beat him up(like alek) but instead, pope ran away hahahahhahaha it was HILARIOUS! Alex Rendell is such a sweetheart, he's just so adorable. And of course when JamesJi scored, the fanzone was WILD. It has been years since we had that smiley in the stand. Oh yeah! I forgot about Mario and that funny expression of defeat of his hahaha but pink team is so nice and just carrying out casualties instead of beating them up like the green team
. I was surprised that it was JamesJi who went with James Ma (they did that too before in 2013). I was expecting him to be escorted by Nadech. Nadech's kick was funny too because the whole green team ganged up on him and pressured him to miss hahaha.
So the main highlight of the game is actually the part after when the cameras aren't rolling anymore. The actors go to their fanzones and say hi to their loyal fans. Pope's fanclub is so loud that James Ji even stopped and kinda looked at them too haha. Pope went to the James Ji zone and teased James a bit though i don't know what they had been talking about because i can't understand Thai but it was nice to see them getting along. Boy and Alek also came, and also Great of course. James Ji and Great are so damn random. They just randomly decided to head tumble in the grass for fanservice hahahaha
Ok my post is insanely long now but to sum it up, I realize that this event is really for fans. Like the funniest part is seeing them just goof around and not be like the characters they play. The fans, despite the heat and all that torture looked like they had lots of fun. So it's something that we don't really see on tv. Would I recommend it, sure. It's a nice worthy experience. I feel like crap today from the fatigue but it was super fun and I am still giggling till now.
