I Survived Ateez at Citi Field

I have attended several concerts in Korea before, but ATEEZ at Citi Field in New York on August 3, 2024 was my first K-Pop concert in the United States. It was an experience like nothing else I have seen between the fans, staff, weather, and overall content.

I felt like this concert was lacking organization and signage. Fans of the group, ATINY, started showing up at the venue before 10AM so they could wait in line to pick up VIP lanyards and wait for the merch tent to open. There were only a couple of staff outside at the time and they were directing everyone to form one giant line for anyone waiting to pick up one of the three different tiers of VIP and merch and they would separate everyone into their respective lines closer to the time the tents would open. I went to the venue early to wait with my friend who had a VIP ticket even though I could have waited a few more hours before showing up so I got to experience the way the staff at the venue ran the VIP section. The VIP tents were supposed to open at 11AM, while the merch tent was supposed to open at noon. The staff did separate the lines not long before the VIP tents were supposed to open, but they did not hold up any signs to show which of the four lines was what. ATINY were asking others that were standing closer to the front which line was which and it took a while to get everyone sorted into their respective lines. 11AM rolled around and all the VIP ticket holders were growing a little restless, the sun was beating down directly on the lines and some of the fans had been standing out there for over an hour already in the extremely high heat temperatures. Closer to 11:30AM a staff came through the lines explaining that their system was updating and that it would take a little longer before they could check any of the VIP’s in. Everyone tried to hid under umbrella’s to keep some of the sun off. Eventually the lines began to move once the system had finished updating. There were three white tents set up in front of the different VIP lines, the only distinction between them was a piece of paper taped to the top of the table under each tent that specified which line was for which tier of VIP that you could only see once reaching the front of the line. This caused many people arriving after the lines had been split up to have to ask other ATINY’s where they needed to go as any staff outside was part of KQ Entertainment and running the VIP lines. The staff from the venue had completely disappeared and there was no one out there to ask questions to if anyone needed.

After receiving the VIP lanyards most ATINY went to the back of the merch line that was slowly moving towards the merch tent. VIP fans were asking each other if there was a separate merch tent for them, as one of the benefits listed on their tickets was that they would have first access to merch. My friend stepped out of line to see if she could find an answer since the regular merch line was already several hours deep. After a few minutes of running around she discovered a smaller line, tucked into the corner of the merch tent. There were no signs marking it as a separate line intended for VIP until you were within the next few fans in line. There were pieces of paper with the two highest VIP tiers printed on it taped to to the pole of one merch tent with a paper with the lowest VIP tier and regular ticket holders on the rest of the merch tents. Once people discovered there was a separate line and moved over to it, both the VIP merch line and regular merch lines started moving a bit quicker. So many ATINY came up to us and other around us, asking what the smaller line near the merch tent was because everyone was confused as to where the lines for the merch tent started.

I did go ahead and purchase the ATEEZ membership on the way to the concert because there was supposed to be an ATINY Zone where members could receive two photocards. No one could tell where the ATINY Zone was going to be set up, so a lot of fans drifted to the edges of the main zone to find a bit of relief in the shade. There was one mister set up in the middle of the sunniest section.

Photocards from ATINY Zone and merch benefit ->

Closer to when the ATINY Zone was supposed to open, we noticed another line forming near the VIP merch line. My friend and I left our shade to check it out because she had to go inside soon for her VIP benefits soon after the ATINY Zone opened. After asking around, it was assumed that this line was for the ATINY Zone at an unmarked tent that fans had been swapping photocards at earlier in the day, but no one was fully certain. Thankfully it really was the line for the ATINY Zone and we were able to collect our photocards. ATINY started to stand off to the side of the tent to try to exchange their photocards for their bias, but after a few minutes one of the venue staff came out and made everyone move further away.

After that it was time to say goodbye to my friend until after the concert, so I decided to go sit in the shade. It was too hot to stand around for about four more hours until gates opened. I found a spot on the steps leading down from one exit of the subway that was also used by many other ATINY. I found a vacant step and it felt so good to finally be in the shade after being in the blazing sun all day. It didn’t take long before the steps started filling up with ATINY chatting, eating or handing out freebies. Soon after a staff came by and wanted to clear out two to three full sections of the steps so fans arriving on the subway could come down even though there were three completely empty sections of the steps just off to the side. It was the only bit of shade outside so fans were not eager to move more than scooting over so fans could pass without completely moving.

As I was waiting for the gates to open, lightning was spotted in the distance. I was hoping the storm would pass by the venue. I had traveled from North Carolina to New York just to see ATEEZ with my friend and I didn’t want the show to end up getting canceled or postponed because there was no way I could get back. ATINY started lining up near the gates of the venue despite the lighting once it was closer to time to go in. The lines soon became one squished mess with no one understanding where they needed to be. Not a single staff member was in sight to help answer anyone’s questions of which gate they needed to enter for their ticket so it became quite a mess. I knew I needed to find the left field gate because that was what my ticket said, but I wasn’t sure where that was. No one did it seemed. I did manage to find a few other ATINY in sections around where my ticket was so I waited in line with them. Everyone was confused about where they should be waiting to get in, but there were so many fans that it was almost impossible to go look around for another gate. I knew I was probably at the wrong gate, which I was, but I figured as long as I could get in I could walk around until I found my section anyway instead of getting in the very back of the gate that would have been closer to my section originally.

It started pouring while everyone was waiting in line and I had a fear that the show wasn’t going to happen. I wanted it to go on, but I knew the boys and the fans needed to stay safe. All the fans were standing out in the middle of a rain and lightning storm though so that was a bit counter productive to staying safe. The gates did finally open, but we were not allowed to go to our seats once we got inside. ATINY were instructed that they needed to stay under the coverings near the concession stands on each floor without going into the seated sections.

Due to the lack of true lines it took over an hour for me to get into the venue. Barricades that were set up were being cut by people that had been further back. Only about four gates were open for then entire venue, making it take longer to get fans through security. With the shortage of gates being open more people were crushing in together so when a medic was needed several times outside it took a few minutes for a path to be cleared so the person could be helped. Medics were set up so far away from the ‘line’ that when ATINY started yelling and waving to the medics they didn’t see until someone ran over to their setup to get their attention, then it still took a few minutes for the medic to get to the scene. I don’t think that was set up good, especially if someone had needed immediate care instead of most being related to the oppressive heat. The concert was still supposed to start at 7:30PM by the time I made it inside, which would have only given me about ten minutes to make it up to the very top floor and find my seat while still having thousands of fans mill about outside waiting to get in.

The lightning kept striking in the area which caused the performance to be delayed, thankfully that allowed me time to use the bathroom since there were none outside the venue unless you wanted to ride the subway to the nearest mall which a lot of fans ended up doing throughout the day. The rain kept coming down in sheets and I just watched it from under the stands.

As more and more fans entered, it became very crowded and hot. I wanted to sit down somewhere so bad, but there was nowhere to go and water was pooling everywhere so I just stood near my section. Through the speakers a few ATEEZ songs were played which felt surreal to hear all the ATINY’s singing the words back all together. Nothing was going to stop us from showing our support to the boys.

After a two hour delay we were finally able to go to our seats just as a bolt of lightning struck near the stadium. I thought we would have to go back under the covers, but the staff let us continue to our seats and it was the last bolt that I noticed. The rain was drizzling at least instead of pouring by that point so that made it more bearable though everything was still soaked from earlier.

As soon as ATEEZ stepped on stage the rain seemed to vanish which I took to be a good sign. The boys went through the show flawlessly and it was amazing to get to see my ult group live as a whole- I had previously seen ATEEZ without Jongho due to an injury last year. ATINY screamed for all the members and sang all the words back to the boys throughout the show.

Towards the end ATEEZ had to shorten a few of their songs and cut Turbulence and Dreamy Day completely due to time constraints. They kept apologizing that they couldn’t finish out their set list, but I think most ATINY were happy to have even been their at all after everything that had happened all day long.

Overall I liked the concert itself more than the experience at the venue. I don’t have any other US K-Pop concert experience to compare this one to, so I don’t know if the way it was run was normal or not but there were quite a few fans who were not happy with the lack of communication throughout the day.

ATEEZ did an amazing job and had such strong stage presence. I was thrilled to see that Dancing Like Butterfly Wings was on the setlist this tour as it is one of my favorite ATEEZ songs, so hearing that live made my entire night. Performance wise I would rank it in my top 5 because they know how to put on a show and their facial expressions are on another level. It would have been higher on my ranking if the outside factors had not played such a major role throughout the day, but I would still do it all over again for ATEEZ.

“I Survived ATEEZ at Citi Field” has become a meme throughout ATINY’s on X after the concert after everything we had been through. I think it helped make more of a community to share those moments with others before sharing the moments with ATEEZ on stage.

8 makes 1 team!