Sakurazaka46 overseas performances (concerts, showcases)

I can't go myself unfortunately, but there are several Discord servers with fellow EU fans who are going, and are discussing plans and meetups there.

But for those who are going, enjoy

 

Do we know what songs will Sakurazaka perform in Paris?

 

the setlist was as follows:
1. Masatsukeisu
2. Naze koi wo shitekonakattandarou?
3. MC
4. Sakurazuki
5. Buddies
6. BAN
7. Start over!
--
From the clips i saw on twitter the girls gave amazing perfomances. Matsuda spoke some french from the mc and ten as well.

 

I’m back at my hotel. The show started 30 minutes late, the staff seemed overwhelmed with numbers attending and the queuing turned into something of a clusterf*ck.

But even though I ended up some way back from the stage I had a reasonably central seat. @blabla123 has already posted the set list and I can confirm that Start Over! had the full choreography.

The whole show was great fun and I hope management take note of of the huge crowds that were there and maybe schedule some more events here in Europe.

Finally here’s a thumbnail of my view of the stage:

 

Oh well, Japan Expo Staff did a poor job at organising the waiting line, it took like forever to make this huge queue entering the hall.
The hall was empty since like 14h00, and theiy reopened it around 16h00. How could they with their experience, imagine to have so many people in, less than 30 minutes. Unbelievable !!

Just .... Sorry @David61 to tone down your enthousiasm, the majority of the crowd was there for the Euro Cosplay Gathering, I hope Sakurazaka46 management don't fall for the illusion of a massive crowd. Not that many left the venue right afte the showcase though.

https://twitter.com/sakurazaka46/status/1680281153654382592

also, update on itw.
We couldn't have any possibilities.

 

Agree, the organization was a huge mess and was done in one of the worst possible ways. They seriously underestimated the motivation (and numbers) of Sakurazaka fans. It was frustrating. We ended up more in the back in the middle and compensated for the far seats with shouting as loud as possible lol

That being said, the setlist was gorgeous! I loved it from the start to the end, it was fun and super energetic and so cute how the girls spoke French. I only understood Ten, though, but Matsurina talking was funny and even the cosplay dudes in front of us seemed to be amused about it in a positive way.

@blabla123 I thought so too after standing in line, but the number of people who left after the show was far higher than I expected, tbh. So I still hope that this show at least shows the management that there are more than a few overseas fans.

They could've brought some merch, I met a bunch of people who would have bought it all. Thankfully, the generous Japanese fans handed out photocards and CDs for free. Lucky

 

Do we know how long the girls actually stayed in Paris (I assume at least 2 nights plus the day of the performance)? Did they have any time for sightseeing?

 

As a professional in market research, I just hope that the organizers of the expo have, among other sources, proper facts in the form of figures and statistics regarding attendance. What interest us here is how many people originally considered the Sakurazaka appearence as their main reason to visit the expo and how many have discovered the group just at that moment, have liked it and will continue to support/follow (I used to create and distribute similar questionnaires via mobile phones in concert venues for several occasions and analyse results for the organizers of the events as well as sponsors). Of course, not only figures but also composition of this group of attendants (more importantly anyone who had to travel for the event) would shed light into any future decision to repeat such a venture in the future.

We already have constrasting reports from people who've been there (@David61 and @wuerfel consider Saku fans to be a large part of the audience, while @lionel90 and others posting in the Saku-discord speak about a vast majority of cos-players). It would take considerable amount of supporting data for any future decision to repeat this, however one thing is certain: in order to achieve profitability, they would make it a sort of concert-tour and cover 4-5 major European cities/markets in say a period of 10-14 days (e.g. London, Paris, Rome and Berlin plus maybe Madrid or a major Eastern-European capital).

And of course any such venture would require to be announced well in-advance for fans to arrange for transportation and their jobs/leaves (I wish I had more than a month to arrange for flights and accomodation for fans that are residents of other european cities - the short period was the main reason I couldn't be there myself). I pity myself not so much of the concert itself but of the chance to actually see the girls from such a close distance as they roamed around the venue happy and carefree. Just by looking at distance they had to cover between Tokyo and Paris, they appeared to be literally next-door to where I live - and yet I couldn't go: this is why I feel so frustrated. Needless to say, after seeing what people who managed to get there, posted at Saku-discord, I just couldn't sleep that night...

 

Hello everyone.
Well as said previously the organisation was bad. The real problem in this regard was the queuing managment, which led to the delay.
The live performance in itself was really great.
As someone who attended such events many times at Japan Expo, I can say that the running of said events has improved over the years but is still lacking some "discipline".

Regarding the audience. I can say without any doubt that the great majority of the people gathered there came for the cosplay event. However there were also many people present for Sakurazaka46 (and not just fans). In general the Japan Expo audience is very welcoming to idol groups.

I think Sakurazaka46 like many other japanese artists came to Japan Expo mainly because it's a great opporunity for their communication in Japanese medias. Showing on TV and other medias how Sakurazaka46 gave a live in Paris is very good promotion for them. It gives them an "international aura" to the eyes of the japanese general audience.
But you have to make it look good. So you perform in the main stage just before one of the biggest shows (if not the biggest) of the festival. This way you ensure to have between one and two thousand persons gathered in front of the girls (and off course the cameras).

Well my point is that everything was planned to make good images for the promotion in Japan. That's why the live was their single event in Paris and only lasted for 30 minutes (other lives at Japan Expo last for at least 45 minutes in general).

All in all nice experience even though a bit frustrating. But in my opinion not worth comming from abroad just to see the girls. You better plan a good trip to Japan.

 

Totally agree on that. Nobody can deny that the majority was there for the contest, but more people than (I personally, having seen the queue) expected were concert-only guests. This is what I meant, @Philosophy Senpai. I think everyone saw the same phenomenon, but everyone came to a different rather positive or negative conclusion about the ratio

 

I saw that priority entrance was being given to Starpass ticket holders and I assumed that this was the general 'fastpass' type ticket for Japan Expo which is available well in advance. However afterwards I saw the post from @lionel90 who explained that this priority was actually for attendees of the Euro Cosplay Gathering and then I remembered that the 'fastpass' tickets are actually known as 'Zen', and indeed holders of these particular tickets in this case would have had no more priority than 'regular' ticket holders such as myself to access this event.

When we were eventually allowed in we were directed by staff over to the far left-hand side where the seats only had an oblique view of the stage. Seeing that there were some spare seats in the central block I initially headed towards them but I was immediately sent back by a staff member. I continued over to the left and when I saw the poor view from there I had a 'f*ck this' moment and tried again to get one of the spare seats in the middle area. This time I managed to evade staff (as did a few others) and I grabbed a seat in the central area with a better although still rather distant view. I did wonder why nobody in front of me had lightsticks or the hand banners being distributed by Saku Central - now I know why!

However there seemed to be many (probably a thousand or two? or more?) people behind me in the queue so I'd say that at least 50% of the people there were genuine Saku fans, there were definitely many people without seats behind the seated areas.

Sakurazaka's appearance was the main reason why I travelled from the UK to the Expo. As soon as their appearance was announced I booked a weekend trip and my decision was helped to some degree by 3 things: I've long wanted to visit the Expo anyway - the other idol groups there looked interesting - and maybe, just maybe the Saku members would also have a meet and greet event (although of course that was a long shot which didn't happen).

Yes you get a better idol experience in Japan but Sakamichi concert tickets are so difficult to get, at least for foreigners. While I was in Japan in April there were two Nogi 'Under' concerts in Tokyo but AFAICS they were sold out from the FC lottery. At least I got to see Saku perform in Paris on Saturday!

EDIT: I've just seen a Tweet from Sakurazaka Central that links to a Japanese article from ENCOUNT which is claiming that there was 15K people in the audience:
https://encount.press/archives/487240/

Also there's a tweet linking to this ModelPress article with some photos of the members sightseeing in Paris:
https://mdpr.jp/photo/detail/14157395

Hono has posted a nice selection of photos from Paris in her blog:
https://sakurazaka46.com/s/s46/diary/detail/50959

I can see in the fifth photo the street name Boulevard de Magenta which wasn't far away from the hotel I was staying at. I wonder which day these photos were taken?

 

I think 15 000 is exagerated. It's difficult to estimate the number of people in a crowd though. Maybe 15 000 is the total capacity of the hall.

 

Adding my two pence to the discussion... Like David61, I had been wanting to attend japan expo for years, and being from the UK, it was a no brainer for me to attend once the announcement of the group's performance was revealed. Honestly, I have mostly positive feelings towards the event, but only because of my interactions with the members. The event organization itself was bad.. so lets start there lol..

Firstly, they should have made it clear to fans from the beginning that the group would be performing as an "opening act" to the cosplay event. Frequent japan expo go-er's explained that they do this each year, but almost every buddies I spoke to had no idea this was what we were going to watch. This resulted in buddies waiting for hours in the baking hot sun and bursts of torrential rain, only to eventually be held in another long queue as the "Cosplay fast pass holders" made their way to the front seats. Had the event organizers told us from the beginning that we need to get more than the "regular" or "zen" passes, many more of us would have gotten front row seats. They left the venue empty from 2pm, when they could have allowed fans to wait in an orderly queue at the back of the venue, outside of the rain and saving us from a 30 min delay. The information staff had no idea what was happening, and it was clear the event organizers did not realize how popular the group was.

Honestly, I feel like it would have been better if they had performed at the Yuzu stage (the same one Yoshiki from XJapan performed at). Yes, it wouldn't have looked as great for promotional photo's, however, it would have allowed the members to properly interact with their international fans for the first time in a more intimate setting, while also allowing the general public to pop in and come and go as they please, as this is how most convention go-er's discover new artists. It was kinda heartbreaking seeing the members having to direct their attention to the sides of the stage because that's where maybe 90% of their fans were located. I know there were also fans who didn't even get a change to grab a seat, and had to watch the concert from the back of the venue while still in the queue. I know some fans who couldn't even get into the venue. All of this could have been avoided. My only hope is that snf/sony can book a smaller venue like La Cigale (950-1,300 capacity) or Olympia (1,900-3,000 capacity) so that we can have that experience, and it will allow them to really see how many fans they have, as I don't think the japan expo will be a good example of how many people tried to see them on saturday.

All this being said, I was able to see many of the members 'in the wild'. I encountered Hono, Rei, Rena, Inoue, Akipo, and Uemu first, and got a very warm smile from Hono and a big wave from Uemu which left me in shock for a good 10 minutes lol. I then saw Inoue and Akipo again while they were vlogging, and a few meters away, I discovered Run and Habu drawing in the copic section! It took me about half an hour to gather the courage to say hi to them, but I eventually did. While Run and Habu were filming a couple of meters away, I approached the staff with them first to ask if I can speak to them. The staff struggled to understand me with my english and broken french and japanese, but I said "I'm buddies! I'm from london" and showed them my outfit (wearing pink white and black), so they realized I was a fan lol. The staff said I could say hello, and I joked saying I didn't want to be caught on the vlog habu was filming or be on soko saku LOL. One of the staff ladies understood and laughed and said it's okay and did the hand gesture for me to approach them. By the time I turned and looked at them, they were already staring at me with a huge smile on their faces. So I did this face then did this hahaha. I said hello in english and japanese, then said "I'm a buddies from london" with the saku hand sign (i alternated between saku and keyaki tbh) bc I figured they would understand that. Then they were like "ah! thank you!" and bowed at me lol. I bowed back and gestured towards run and said "oshi". She did a little then and bowed again, so I bowed back, then she bowed again, and I felt like it was going to last forever lmao. I eventually said thank you to them and the staff and walked away.... but I kinda skipped away and my sister and friends said they could see me jumping and laughed so I definitely embarrassed myself in front of them

I never thought I would be able to see them in the wild, and never dreamed of being so close to my oshi and greeting her! I felt like I was dreaming. She's so small but also not as small as I thought (I'm 5'4). Habu is tall but also not as tall as I thought loool. Habu was also super sweet and smug lmao like she had the most insane cool aura. She was already one of my favorite 1ki members but this really sealed the deal for me. The concert itself was so electric. Tears formed while I heard the starting instrumental of buddies, and again while me and the buddies around me all chanted "YO" and waved lightsticks and the sakucentral flyers around. I felt like all of the members have such great stage presence, but most notably the centers and sakura 8. I hate to say it but there's definitely a reason those members are the most popular and picked to be 'saku 8' lol. Hono's voice was so clear and bold on the mic. Hearing Pon's vocals live was mesmerising and Koike's was so incredibly cute! Karin, Run and Ten's stage presence was unreal. They were all so cute. Rei, Rena, Koike and Uemu gave lots of hearts to our side of the stage, and it made me want a super cute unit with them all. I posted my real time reactions and photos on my twitter

Despite the bad organization from the event, the members made my experience unforgettable, and I'm already sure I'll be trying to see them live within the next year. Incredibly, despite being an idol fan for around 15 years now, I'm still young enough to have never been able to afford a trip to japan to see my idols perform, so international performances like this have been my only way to see them, and I got very lucky last weekend. I also have a fear of online meet and greets, because I worried about how my oshimen would perceive me online, and feared a bad reaction, but Run and Habu were so warm and kind and looked genuinely happy to interact. It's made me more confident to apply to the next online events if there are any, and if I can make it to Japan next year, I'll definitely visit during a new single release and say hello again.

 

Today's edition of the TBS morning show 'THE TIME' which was co-hosted by Matsurina (I think she regularly does that on Thursdays?) included a report about the group at Japan Expo (credit to uploader):




At the start there's an introductory piece of video showing Rina's MCs in French and then she talks in the studio about the event. The main report starts at 28:06, it includes some footage of some of the members walking around the Expo followed by some shots of the concert (including clips of 'Ban' and 'Start Over!'), then back in the studio Rina presents some more clips including their sightseeing in the city.

 

WOW @minaeshi what a great report! I smiled reading it from start to end and can only immagine how you felt meeting or seeing the girls! Thank you for sharing this amazing experience with us !

Hopefully this was just the first of many european and all around the world Sakura performances.

 

Just to say that the Expo organisers will be having a final Twitch livestream on Monday 7/24 at 20:00 French time:
https://twitter.com/japanexpo/status/1682040666325671937
https://www.twitch.tv/japanexpo

I'll watch it in case there's any mention of the Saku event and its audience management.

 

And I was about to comment that @Dill became a hikikomori after not being able to go to J-expo in Paris, unlike me that I keep licking my wounds and cursing my fate for missing this big chance to see the girls... @minaeshi 's post was the final straw for me, the last drop that led to overflow... Damn I feel so jealous...

And mostly NOT that I missed the performance: by what I concluded from what people described, chances were that I would end-up somewhere at the back and to the corners. I am crying that I missed the opportunity to see the girls from a such a close distance and tell them (yes, in Japanese) how I love and support them! And in case I came face-to face with Fuu-chan, I would have let her know that there is at least one international fan to whom she is a KAMI-oshi...!

 

I think the fact I'm over-working right now gives me no time to feel sorry for the chance I missed lol
But when I read reports from people who can't fly to Japan on whim and see Sakura so easily like others can, and for once had the chance to, I'm just happy for them and glad they could show to the girls that we are here, and we are cheering.

I believe if it's gonna happen, it will happen
(and I'd resist like half day as hikikomori honestly )

About Fuuchan, I understand and agree... but there are other ways to let her know, while waiting to meet her "live", like writing or in SR I think (and yeah, I'm aware it's not the same )

 

I've just seen this tweeted video from French manga publisher Editions Kurakowa - some lucky people got the chance to see 3 of the members dance close up:
https://twitter.com/Kurokawa/status/1682073597752360969

Although I'm happy to have seen the main performance (even from some way away) I'm also very envious of people (such as @minaeshi!) who got to see the members away from the stage. I didn't get to the Expo until about 1pm, as I said I travelled from London on the Saturday morning but I wish now I'd have stayed in Paris overnight the night before. I enjoyed the Expo as whole, I returned on the Sunday and I had a great few hours there. I'll seriously consider committing myself to booking well in advance to go for at least 3 or maybe even all 4 days next year (in order to get better hotel rates and cheaper train fares), even if Saku or any other major group don't go there's still plenty of other good stuff there for me to enjoy.

 

if the video does not show watch the video here