Friday, October 07, 2011

Fandom

Whenever I see video's of people crying/passing out upon seeing a celebrity, I always wonder why such reaction. I dont have that. Granted I cried when I saw a video of Pavarotti's concert after he passed away. I wanted to see him perform live but had never had the chance.

Calvin said that now my god/idol is dead. I do feel sad with Steve Jobs passing to iHeaven, but I'm not a fan, nothing compared to what I witnessed the other day.

I was/am working closely with this girl on her project which allowed me to get in touch with four Indonesian Westlifers, those are Westlife loyal fans. As soon as they had gotten hold of my number I got phone calls about the event. Can we take picture? Can we give them present? you get the point. I've never seen anyone so excited about something, so passionate about people they'd never met before. It was a bit annoying at first, not to mentioned my ear was hurt from hearing the screaming in the background.

Later on after we met face to face and hearing their stories, I was touched with their dedication and tenacity toward the band. With only 12 days of annual leaves, they use up 3 days for the band. 'Why three days? The concert is only this evening.' I asked one of them. These big eyes looked at me with excitement, 'we have to buy them presents, picked them up at the airport. Today we have to prepare ourselves to meet them, and tomorrow we are going to say good bye to them at the airport.'

When we were waiting for the band to come for meet and greet she touched me, she was a bit teary, 'Thank you, thank you for this opportunity.' After she had her meet and greet I didnt see her again. One of her friends held my hands for the longest time after the concert, 'Thank you so much, you had no idea what it means to me, to us.' She is right, I still dont.

Seeing them is so endearing. I'm just happy to have a very small part in making their dreams come true.

4 comments:

colson said...

My hypothesis: Over the top fandom is the fate of 'uptown girls' who never had 'a backstreet guy' (See? I know my classics :)).


Well actually this is a glimpse of a fascinating and fun part of your job. In this case it seems like it's very much like traffic police, gatekeeper and mediator :). And you can and did make people happy. Not bad, Not bad at all.

triesti said...

@colson show off! :) You forgot: Event Organizer, Interpreter and Consultant. Creating one good karma at a time.

Unknown said...

Those big fans must have been very happy therefore very grateful to you.

triesti said...

@harry, I think they can die happy now.