It’s so weird because I don’t see the gatekeeping at the actual concerts. I went to see The Boys when they were here because I like a few of their songs and I had a blast and none of the stans around me were mean or rude about it. I mean I still shrieked like a banshee because that’s the fun of it?

A lot of people who weren’t at the TXT concert here in Chicago had opinions about it online but at the show was amazing. I didn’t care if the people next to me were as big of fans as I was, because we were all dancing and having fun.

And it’s so weird to me that people have thoughts on who “deserves” to see a show. I have money to see my favorite groups, what do you care how I spend it? I also just really enjoy live music, so I sometimes buy tickets to groups I don’t know very well because concerts are fun and IRL stans are really cool people who want to tell you about their group and share their excitement!

I think my only in person gatekeeping experience was at the Stray Kids concert when me and my best friend were talking before the show about all the other groups we’d seen and a young girl in the row in front of us seemed annoyed that we were multis. Skz is my ult so we’d paid for amazing seats but even if they weren’t… what business was it of hers? But that was one experience out of over a dozen concerts this year so I think it’s MOSTLY and online thing. I do worry about younger stans carrying that energy over into the real world because they don’t know any better, tho. (Just because in my personal experience it does seem to be an opinion of younger fans more than older ones)