Demand for K-pop band Super Junior's Saudi concert crashes site, tickets sell out in hours

It's safe to say that Saudi Arabian fans of K-pop mean business

K-pop group Super Junior is coming to Dubai's Coca-Cola Arena in March this year. Courtesy Super Junior

There are clearly a lot of K-pop fans in Saudi Arabia: tickets for the Super Junior concert in Jeddah sold out just a few hours after they went on sale.

The tickets went on sale late on Wednesday night, and were sold out within approximately three hours. Demand was such, that an hour after the tickets came out, the website was temporarily down.

Some hopeful fans found themselves on a waiting list: “there are 4785 people waiting to buy their tickets, you might wait for more than two hours to get your ticket," read this message.

The South Korean super group's concert will be on Friday, July 12 at King Abdullah Sports City, and is part of a big list of summer gigs that make up Jeddah's Summer Season.

Just an hour after the tickets were released, the concert's organisers tweeted this GIF, with a caption that cheekily read 'what did you do to the website?".

Then people started sharing pictures of a website error on the Sharek platform, where the tickets are sold. The message read "There are a lot of people buying tickets at the moment, please try again later".

By midnight tickets were completely sold out.

Who are Super Junior?

The band is made up of 13 members (there are usually only nine together at one time due to military service and personal reasons). They are one of the earliest K-pop groups to find success, and were formed in 2005.

The band has a huge fan base in GCC, and particularly in Saudi. Super Junior's fan base call themselves 'E.L.F', an acronym that stands for 'ever lasting friends'.

After Super Junior's set on Friday, there will be a gig from two more K-pop groups featuring members of the band: Super Junior K.R.Y (a sub-group of Super Junior, featuring its three main vocalists) will perform. Super Junior D&E will also perform; this sub-group has a harder sound and is made up of Super Junior members Donghae and Eunhyuk.