JKT48 Summer Sounds Good Handshake Festival

JKT48 has held handshake events for five times, and the last two events were called as Handshake Festival with many other attractions happening aside of the usual handshake between fans and members. Yesterday, February 23^rd 2014, they held another Handshake Festival for the fans to meet the members after they have bought the “Manatsu no Sounds Good! – Musim Panas Sounds Good!” (theater version) CD single.

For every CD single (theater version) fans have bought, they can interact with their chosen favorite member for 10 seconds inside a private booth. Fans are allowed to talk, request the member to sing, to play games with, or everything that is still in an acceptable norm and regulation.

The Handshake Festival venue was in Kartika Expo Center, Balai Kartini, Jakarta with IM3 from Indosat as its main sponsor. Other sponsors that support the event were Rohto (Lip Ice and Oxy), Lawson Indonesia, Mie Sedap Cup, Tolak Angin, WakuWaku Japan TV, and Yupi. During the whole day, some of the members were coming to each sponsor’s booth to help gather the mass. They also helped promoting the brands inside each booth.

There are many big improvements compared with the previous Handshake Festival. The area was bigger and circulation of people was way better. The area for handshake, merchandise, registration, and stage were separated, so there was no crossing of people queuing for handshake with those who would like to enjoy the other attractions of the festival. Queuing time was also minimal with many barcode scanners station available during each sessions. There was a time keeper for each booth now. The handshake time was counted started from the moment fans hold member’s hand, making sure that there will be no time cheating.

Just like previous Handshake Festival, the main stage event has many attractive performances. Few members became MCs for the whole day. There were several members that show their talents and skills on the stage. Some of the performers are: Acha (talked on stage mimicking stand up comedy); Lidya, Noella, and Yona (of Itoshisha unit song performed the song Himawari); etc. Some MC sessions had interactive games with fans. There were also musical performances by fans that perform JKT48 songs on the stage.

There were also other problems arose that should be anticipated for the event with few of them should be better anticipated for the next event.

Online registrants now had to queue first to redeem the handshake tickets with the received printed invoice. They have to queue first to the administration booth to receive the handshake ticket. If all tickets had unique barcode in which they can print it by themselves or via mobile phone for an effort to save the trees, why did they have to use this method anyway?

There was no garbage bins available inside the venue. People who bought foods and drinks from sponsor’s booth dispose their leftovers everywhere inside the venue. It was really dirty inside. When you walk near the stage from the left side, you had to step on pilings of food leftovers. There are no staffs that frequently collecting the trash periodically. It was really brings shame on us seeing Japanese people from Lawson that voluntarily helped collecting the trashes themselves after a very late 10 PM, while we, who lives in this country, had the habit of throwing away trashes without even any regrets.

The biggest problem was thefts/pickpockets. There were many reports of stolen phones and wallets. With thousands of people coming without any filter at all, this problem should be expected. Having many securities around weren’t enough. Having free admissions for this kind of event might not be so “free” after all, for those having their belongings stolen.

Apart from the problems received on yesterday’s events, the Handshake Festival was a really nice event. Many fans were excited about it. They leave the handshake booth with a happy smile across their face. It was an exhilarating experience for them, especially for those who have came from outside of Jakarta and those who come to the event for the very first time.

The Handshake Festival was then closed with JKT48 performances. They sang all songs taken from “Manatsu no Sounds Good! – Musim Panas Sounds Good!” (theater version). The rundowns are as follows:

M01. Musim Panas Sounds Good! – senbatsu single.

MC01. Team K3 celebrated Viny’s 18^th birthday that’s happening the same day as Handshake Festival. There was also a video announcement saying that the next Team K3’s setlist will be “Seishun Girls.”

M02. BINGO! – senbatsu single.

M03. Kimi to Boku no Kankei – Hubungan Kau dan Aku – Melody and Nabilah.

MC02. All members were asked to come to the stage.

M04. Dareka no Tame ni – all members.

MC03. Several Team J members talk about Dareka no Tame ni setlist, and video announcement of upcoming single “Flying Get” on March 5^th 2014.

M05. Flying Get – senbatsu single.

MC04. All members came again to the stage and sounsenkyo video was played.

Then Jiro Inao, their general manager, came to the stage to make several announcements. The upcoming sousenkyo for the 6^th single will be done by votes just like their sister groups in Japan. An OFC (Official Fans Club) member has 1 bonus vote as well. Fans could choose Team J, Team K3, trainee, and upcoming chosen member of Gen 3 in the sousenkyo.

The biggest surprise so far (and why can’t it be way sooner months back?) was when Inao asked Rachel and Vanka (trainee members) to go up front. He then announced that both of them are now member of Team J. Rachel and Vanka both cried, then suddenly most members of Gen 2 were crying. They approached Rachel and Vanka, hugged them all with Nadila waiting behind them. She then walked towards Vanka and Rachel with tears on her face, and hugged them both also.

Unfortunately, the rest of trainees are still left with their current status. Though they probably disappointed, but their face looks happy that their team mates are now part of the team. Let’s hope that Via, Dena, Sisil, Novinta, and Shafa could join either Team J or K3 in the near future.

The event was closed at almost 11 p.m. It was a fun and enjoyable event (with notable improvements above). Let’s just hope that the next Handshake Festival will be even better than this one.