Ahgases from Porto Alegre - Brazil, meets each other for the first time to celebrate the favorite kpop group
I held my first event dedicated to Kpop. I invited friends that I only know on social media to have a birthday picnic party. The theme of the event would be the got7 group's 10 years of activity.
2023 was dedicated to learning about Korean culture and lifestyle, from the language, to the food, to the holidays. I have participated in many events about Asia in general as a volunteer and as a visitor. I learned a lot and was enchanted by cultural production. As a journalism student this brought a lot of understanding of the meaning of culture for society. It is not just an activity, but an awareness and guidance event.
Me, using a t-shirt with a Jackson Wang face that I painted myself at the GOT7’s 10th Birthday PicNic Party. By: Ketelin Gomes
The invitation started with a simple call on Twitter. I had no intention to participate in the production, despite having experience in the area. But when the first person who lived more than 74 miles away from the place liked the idea, I started looking for more partnerships to help me with this meeting. We had little time and few places where we could hold the event, so we decided to go for something simpler and improve it.
We created a group in an online chat to plan and think about what each one could contribute. It was a collective production and a dedication that left me very emotional. I believe that this is the true magic of Kpop, it is not only the idols that we follow along the way, but also our development as people, learning to live in a community and in a community way, helping each other.
GOT7’s 10th Birthday Pic Nic Party fandom photo group. By: Ketelin Gomes
Promotion of the event:
I was responsible for producing the poster art for the event, as I published here days before HERE. The development came about through the group's seventh EP '7 for 7' released on October 10, 2017 which contains the single 'You Are'. This title is very important to ahgases due to the content of the song's lyrics and the MV features the group's friendship necklace, each pendant meaning the identity of each member and putting the pieces together they form the old GOT7 logo, a heptagon. I complemented the rest of the poster's with a picnic-themed background. I also reproduced in illustration ahgases' favorite photo, the concept photo of the EP Eyes on You, the group's eighth EP released on March 12, 2018. And bringing something from the group's current phase, I reproduced the new logo launched during the promotions of the first album released independently and outside of JYP Entertainment, self titled 'GOT7'.
We publish on our own social media, from the platform where we met with fan accounts and on others with our personal profiles. Our goal was to create a network of ahgases in our city, even if they couldn't attend they would stay in touch about our next plans.
GOT7’s 10th Birthday Pic Nic Party snacks and fanmades. By: Ketelin Gomes
Big day:
When I was arriving at the meeting place I saw a girl with a green bow in her hair that was bouncing in the wind and a green plaid skirt, even though we had checked the dress code I thought it wouldn't be that easy to find an ahgase in a city 1.5 million just for the clothes. But all it took was an exchange of messages in the chat to confirm that she was an ahgase.
There were already other ahgases waiting at the venue, we greeted each other, exchanged gifts, talked about BamBam's show that had not yet been confirmed in Brazil, talked about how we got into the group, what we do, we discovered that most of them worked in the communications area and that One of the girls was even my classmate at journalism college right when I started the course. We networked and agreed to hold upcoming events, shared delicious food and laughed until we cried.
P.S. There was an architectural installation at the local park that looked a lot like the silhouette of an ahgase bird. We gathered our things and before leaving the place, we went together to take our group photo. I also printed a poster of the event and asked each person to sign it so I could keep it as a souvenir.
I accompanied each one to their starting point and recorded the moment of those who allowed me to record, it was not a goodbye, but rather a see you later, until the next event or meeting. I'm sure we're building a solid friendship because we continue to talk daily and that's what we have to thank Got7 for this.
GOT7’s 10th Birthday Pic Nic Party poster with friends signs to recorder. By: Ketelin Gomes
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