Meeting K-pop Idols at MOKKOJI

 

By Han,

In September of 2022, I went to a Hallyu (Korean Wave) Festival called MOKKOJI. It is an annual festival that celebrates Korean culture and music and features a lineup of guest Korean celebrities. Every year, the event is held in a different country and 2022 was finally Malaysia's turn (FYI, all pics are from Instagram because my old phone fell down a flight of stairs).

Prior to the event, a lucky draw online event was held in the form of a Google Forms for a chance to win a Hi-Touch Ticket with one of the celebrities. A Hi-Touch is basically a little meet and greet session where you can high five your favorite celebrity, it is a staple in K-pop idol fan culture. There were three acts in the lineup, BLANK2Y, Jeon Somi, and Moonbin & Sanha. I was lucky enough to win Hi-Touch tickets for Moonbin & Sanha!

When I arrived at the convention center, I was just walking around with my sister waiting for the moment the first Hi-Touch session starts with BLANK2Y at the mini stage. Since we didn't win tickets for BLANK2Y, we thought we were just going to watch the session from afar but then we encountered a staff member who was generously offering free tickets for BLANK2Y, which of course I couldn't say no to!

On that day, I got to meet the likes of BLANK2Y and Moonbin & Sanha up close. The sessions felt like it went by the speed of light, I wish the pace slowed down just a tad bit to really be able to talk a little more with the idols. Nonetheless, it was still fun to share that moment with them. All I remember was that they smelled nice and had warm hands 😅.