Following is the announcement from Jellyfish Entertainment (VIXX’s management company) regarding the meet & greet photos from the Budapest and Warsaw concerts (12th & 14th of September), that the fans paid for, but never received. And also, all the background info about the whole situation.
Az alábbi cikk nagyrészt angolul született, mivel a hazai rajongók mellett a nemzetközi KPop médiának, a lengyel közönségnek, valamint a budapesti koncertre ellátogató külföldi rajongóknak is szól. De a lényeg, pár személyes kommenttel kiegészítve a cikk végén terészetesen magyarul is össze van foglalva.
A short round-up of what happened: the people who purchased the most expensive tickets (Super High & Five for 169€ – approx. 210 USD) had a chance to take a picture with VIXX after the show, during the meet & greet event. Such pictures are usually posted by the organizer a few days after the concert, however, in this case, the fans never received anything. Neither the pictures, nor any info. The meet & greet photos were taken by the official photographer of VIXX’s management company, Jellyfish, the European tour was organized by Azia Events, a French company, while we were taking care of the local arrangements in Budapest (Just some basic info about us: SoundOfJapan.hu, beside being an online, Asian music news magazine, also works as a concert agency for about ten years, working exclusively with Asian artist that visit Hungary. Our credits include Teen Top and dozens of Japanese artists).
After waiting several weeks, the fans started to send inquiries to both Jellyfish and Azia Events in email, on facebook and every other way they could think of, but their questions were completely ignored. I joined in to help the fans from Budapest to get their photos and as the local promoter I had better luck to contact both parties, but with no real results:
First I contacted the representative of Azia Events early October, who replied that the photos are handled by Jellyfish, whom, due to some disagreement after the concert, never sent it to them (following this, they also made a similar announcement which you can find here). Then I contacted Jellyfish at the end of October. Received no reply, so I tried again mid-November, stating that the fans are ready to turn to the media or take legal actions if they do not receive what they paid for. After this I finally got a reply, that the delay is indeed due to a disagreement between Azia Events and Jellyfish and that I will receive an official announcement soon. Receiving no news for several weeks, I contacted them again a few days ago and finally today (28th of Nov) Jellyfish posted the announcement on their facebook page (in English and Korean), which you can find below in its full length.
However, we (representing the fans) are not fully pleased with this announcement, so there will be some further comments below.
This is Jellyfish Entertainment.
We are making an announcement due to many inquires about the VIP photo of VIXX Europe Concert- HEX SIGN live Fantasia in Europe.
As a reward of the warm support and continuous love of the Europe fans, VIXX tried their best to contribute in the progress of balancing the K-POP market around Europe
since their debut, by proceeding the concert not only in France and Germany, but also in countries such as Sweden, Italy, Hungary, Poland etc. which it had relatively few concerts.
At the process of Hungary and Poland concert tour, Jellyfish Entertainment and the relevant concert tour organizer CJ E&M was placed in a difficult situation to fulfill the concert tour due to the sudden cancellation of the Dusseldorf, Germany event which were scheduled in advance.
We were told that the event was cancelled unilaterally by the local promoter situation.
Over prior consultation with the “Azia event” which was the promoter of Europe concert tour, we compromised many parts with the circumstances despite this matter.
Including the artist guarantee which was discussed over the contract, the personnel expenses of the production and even the roundtrip airfare was not provided also.
However, we proceeded the tour to keep the promise only for the fans.
In spite of this unfavorable situation, VIXX, Jellyfish and CJ E&M did their best for this concert to please the Europe fans that waited VIXX and tried to make a successful concert. Even we actively participate in fan events, we still did not receive the payment after 2 month of the concert tour eventually and “Azia event” is not fulfilling the contract facts and agreement.
For this reason, Jellyfish Entertainment and CJ E&M will take a strong legal action against the company to prevent this similar instance which hinders the progress of the K POP around Europe and giving disappointment to the Europe fans.
As fans are concerned, we promise that we will do our best to solve this problem and make a continuous contact to the promoter to make a progress of providing the VIP Photo.
It is true that Jellyfish Entertainment and CJ E&M also had a loss of value for money and major damage by this circumstance, but above all, we apologize for any inconvenience and anxiety this may cause.
We will make an effort to prevent such matters in the future.
Thank you for your continuous support and love.
Thank you.
So, to make this short: Jellyfish is keeping the photos, because Azia Events failed to pay them after the concert.
However, while we understand the seriousness of the situation and fully support Jellyfish in their efforts to get what they worked so hard for, we feel that keeping back the photos from the fans (without whose continuous support, there would be no Jellyfish or VIXX) is not the proper solution to achieve their goals. Also, it does not justify ignoring all inquiries and questions for over two months.
We feel that the priority for both parties should be to do their best to make sure that the fans are not the ones who suffer the consequences of their disagreement, as this seriously undermines the reputation and reliability of both companies. So, we hope that while Jellyfish takes this case to the court, they will not hold back the fans’ photos any longer.
UPDATE:
Shortly after we published the above, we also received an announcement from Azia Events:
Since Jellyfish want to discuss this on public:
Why there is a problem for paying the Flight fees?
Because they never give us the Bill with the exact amount. They just keep making up the total they have in mind.
As you know all, they wanted to use the K-Culture Festival flights to add more concert during that week end, but the K-Culture Festival got cancelled.
So why they don’t give us the righ amount ? We can only guess:
Reason 1 : They make up numbers so they can get some money from it. After calculation of the flights for all members and staff, the total is around half of what they ask us.
Reason 2 : It was payed by the K-Culture Festival (So they don’t want to show it) and they used that money to come to Europe, but still want us to pay the Crazy amount they want (double of what it should be after our calculations)
They told us : “We will be in Germany so let’s make 2 concerts on friday and sunday, you just have to pay flight between Europe”
And then they changed their mind.
We feel sorry they keep the pictures from fans to try to cheat on us, but we also can make a law suit for Confidence trick or Scam and if we need to we will.
Anyway, we are in discussion with them and if we see there is no chance to get the pictures we will give back the supplement some people payed for the Pictures.
Azia Events staff.
So, this makes the whole situation even more complicated.
És akkor magyarul is: a szeptember közepi, budapesti és varsói VIXX koncert után azok, akik a legdrágább, 169 eurós (kb. 53.000 forintos) jegyet vették, melyben benne volt egy, a csapat tagjaival közös fotó is, ezt a fotót azóta sem kapták meg. A megkeresésekre sem az európai szervező (Azia Events), sem a VIXX menedzsmentje (Jellyfish) nem válaszolt és ignoráltak minden hozzájuk befutó, ezzel kapcsolatos kérdést. Ezután, mint a koncert helyi szervezője, megpróbáltam én közbenjárni a szervezőknél és habár, többszöri megkeresés után sikerült válaszokat kicsikarni mindkét félből, a fotókhoz így sem jutottunk közelebb egyelőre.
Az Azia Events képviselője közölte, hogy a turné után nézeteltérésbe keveredtek a Jellyfish-el, akik emiatt nem küldik el nekik a fotókat. A Jellyfish képviselője jó ideig nem volt hajlandó válaszolni, de miután kilátásba lett helyezve, hogy a nemzetközi és koreai média elé kerül az ügy, valamint jogi lépéseket tesznek a rajongók, végül válaszolt, megerősítve, hogy tényleg a nézeteltéréseik állnak a háttérben, de a felelősséget teljes egészében az Azia Events-re hárította és igért egy hivatalos közleményt az ügyről. Ez megintcsak egy újabb sürgetés után, több, mint két héttel később ma (nov 28) publikálta végre a Jellyfish facebook oldalán.
A közleményből (fent angolul, teljes terjeelmében) röviden összefoglalva az derül ki, hogy a düsseldorfi KPop Festival botrányos lemondása (részletek itt) ellenére is bevállalták az európai kiruccanás fennmaradó két állomását, bízva az Azia Events igéreteiben. Azonban, annak ellenére, hogy ők rugalmasak voltak a feltételekkel kapcsolatban, hogy összejöhessenek az európai fellépések és később a szerződés minden pontjának maradéktalanul eleget tettek, az Azia Events azóta sem fizetett nekik semmit, beleértve a fellépti díjat, de még az utiköltséget is.
Amellett, hogy nem vagyok meglepve az Azia Events végtelen felelőtlenségén és szervezetlenségén (erről már a koncert előtt, az MBLAQ, majd a VIXX bejelentés és az ezeket követő fejetlenség kapcsán is bőven volt szó itt az oldalon és a koncert előtti, alatti, utáni események csak erősítették ezt az érzést), a Jellyfish eljárását is felháborítónak tartom. Bármilyen súlyos is ez az ügy, azt nem indokolja, hogy a rajongók (akik nélkül nem létezhetne se VIXX, se Jellyfish) megkereséseit hónapokon át ignorálják, csak kvázi fenyegetések hatására reagáljanak végre valamit és legfőképpen: véleményem szerint elsődleges feladatuk kellene, hogy legyen mindent megtenni azért, hogy a köztük és az Azia Events közti nézeteltérés miatt ne a rajongók járjanak rosszul. Vagyis nagyon remélem, hogy nem tartják vissza továbbra is a képeket, a bírósági ügy lezártáig.
Frissítés: közben befutott az Azia Events bejelentése is – Ők azt kifogásolják, hogy nem kaptak pontos, részletezett számlát a Jellyfish részéről, emiatt nem tudtak nekik fizetni. És, hogy szerették volna a színfalak mögött megbeszélni az ügyet, nem pedig nyilvánosan. Vagyis egyre csavarosabb ez az egész ügy. Viszont a dologhoz azért hozzátartozik az is, hogy hetekkel ezelőtt mondtam nekik, hogy lesz egy médiabejelentés az üggyel kapcsolatban és ha van bármi hozzáfűznivalójuk, akkor azt még az előtt írják meg, hogy teljesebb képet kapjanak a rajongók, ennek ellenére vártak a Jelly nyilatkozatáig. Mindenesetre állítják, hogy ha nem oldódik meg az ügy, akkor hajlandóak visszatéríteni a fotós felárat.
Korean version
젤리피쉬vs Azia Events 사건에 대하여 알리려고 한다.
10월 헝가리 부다페스트와 폴란드 바르샤바에서 있었던 빅스 콘서트에서 일부 팬들은 빅스 멤버와 함께 찍은 사진을 포함하는 비싼 가격의 (169 유로, 53만 포린트) VIP 티켓을 구매했지만1달이 지난 지금까지 사진을 받지 못했다. 팬들은 유럽의 콘서트 조직회사 (Azia Events)와 빅스의 기획사 (젤리피쉬 엔터테인먼트)에 연락해 사진을 요구했지만 질문에 대한 반응을 받지 못했다. 나는 헝가리 빅스 콘서트의 조직자들 중의 하나로서 유럽과 한국의 담당자들에게 연락을 취해 대답은 들을 수 있었지만 요구한 사진은 아직 받지 못했다.
Azia Events 관계자는 투어 후에 젤리피쉬 엔터테인먼트와 문제가 생겨서 젤리피쉬가Azia Events 측으로 사진을 보내지 않았다고 전했다. 팬들은 이 사건을 국제 및 한국 언론에 공개하고 법적 조치를 취하려고 한다고 젤리피쉬에 알렸다. 젤리피쉬는 공식적인 발표를 하기로 약속했지만 이후 어떤 발표도 들을 수 없었다. 팬들의 잇따른 요구에 약속한지 2주가 지난 오늘 (11월 28일) 드디어 페이스북 사이트를 통해 공식적인 입장을 발표했다.
발표한 내용에 따르면, 젤리피쉬는 뒤셀도르프KPOP축제가 갑작스럽게 취소된 데에도 불구하고Azia Events를 믿고 다른 유럽 투어가 취소되지 않도록 최선을 다 했다. 젤리피쉬는 계약사항을 이행하고 의무를 다했지만Azia Events쪽으로부터 아직까지 공연비와 여행경비조차 받지 못하였다고 했다.
이어서Azia Events도 발표를 했다. Azia Events는 젤리피쉬가 여행경비에 대한 영수증을 제시하지 못했기 때문에 경비를 줄 수 없다고 했다. 이 문제가 해결되지 않는 경우 티켓에 포함된 사진에 대한 위약금을 팬들에게 돌려주겠다고 했다.
Azia Events의 책임없고 혼란스러운 행동 때문에도 나는 놀랐지만 젤리피쉬의 처리도 정말 노하게 한다. 빅스는 팬들 덕분에 존재하는데 문제가 생기면 팬들의 요구를 이렇게 오래 무시하고 협박 때문에만 반응을 하는 게 정말 무례한 것 같다. 내 의견으로는 젤리피쉬와 Azia Events의 사건 때문에 팬들은 불행을 당하면 안 된다. 그러니까 사진들을 소송이 마치기 전에 곧 본인에게 보내길 바란다.