Aldrig I Helvete!! Stockholm Expo Cancelled

Tuesday, 21st April 2009 13:25

So it looks like all those rumours were true, the Stockholm Expo has been cancelled. So for those that haven't read the email....

"Unfortunately we have to inform you that Stockholm Japan Expo 2009 is cancelled.

There are several reasons for this, the financial change in world economy, severe competition from other festivals/concerts as well as poor ticket sale.

This means you will get your ticket purchase back by www.ticnet.se. More info about this will be announced on our website (www.japanexpo.se) next week.

We deeply apologize for the inconvenience it may have caused and hope that Stockholm Japan Expo will be feasible in the near future.


With sincere apologies,

SJX-Crew "

Well, I guess with them refunding the tickets it gives me a little extra spending money for when I head out to Sweden, lol I have a hotel, plane tickets and the time booked off work, what else is there to do? I guess turn up at the London Expo? But I doubt as much as I'd beg and plead to get my money back for the hotel and flight I wouldn't get it, besides isn't Sweden supposed to be crammed full with attractive blonde girls? Or has my TV been lying to me all these years? I guess at the very least it can be used as a research trip to prove this very theory :S
Oh well, you never know Buono! might head over and do a performance in the street or something? I guess until there's official word on the H!P site as to what's happening, I'd imagine there must be some royally pissed off Japanese fans with fairly expensive flights booked...so who knows what they'll do to appease the fans?

I'm going to go off and cry now...

TAGS [ Buono! Stuff ]
Posted Tuesday, 21st April 2009 13:25 | 4232 Reads

Comments

Comment by rackles on Tuesday, 21st April 2009 14:02
Oh that's terrible! Well, I guess all the H!P fans who have already bought tickets and hotel rooms can commiserate over some Swedish beers together.


Comment by T!MM!! on Tuesday, 21st April 2009 14:25
Bad news, I bet it hurt you as much as It hurt me when X-Japan canceled their concert in Thailand, I've wait for mare than 11 years already! damn


Comment by loveberryz on Tuesday, 21st April 2009 14:42
OMFG it sucks. Anyway I hope you find some nice blonde chicks in Sweeden.


Comment by Matt_D on Tuesday, 21st April 2009 14:51
miserable week ahead - you can always join the begging mails info@newnippon.net


Comment by nya on Tuesday, 21st April 2009 15:40
T_T

Getting to see Buono! on my birthday would have been an awesome birthday present... I should have known it was too good to be true.


Comment by ida on Tuesday, 21st April 2009 16:34
"besides isn't Sweden supposed to be crammed full with attractive blonde girls?"

True, there's a fair share of blonde girls in Sweden, I'm sure you can find something else to do :P Bad thing it got cancelled though :/


Comment by Hexi on Tuesday, 21st April 2009 17:29
Sucky.
Buono should come to Expo now!!!!!


Comment by Matt_D on Tuesday, 21st April 2009 17:37
I say they should go to Connichi - that's a pretty awsome con with a good music venue


Comment by DoubleJ on Tuesday, 21st April 2009 18:28
My heart goes out to all of you that were so looking forward to seeing Buono in Sweden. Let's hope they reschedule something.


Comment by magatsu17 on Tuesday, 21st April 2009 20:48
Nothing but my deepest sympathy to you guys who were going to attend. I live in the US and can't afford to go AX. But atleast i could live vicariously though those who did go see Buono and Morning Musume. Hopefully Buono will go to a different Con.


Comment by Sarah on Tuesday, 21st April 2009 21:41
Same here... I have 400€ worth plane tickets for... Nothing. Sort of pissed off... Maybe we can meet then ! Between H!P/Buono! fans ! haha ! That would be nice! ^^


Comment by sozomusume on Tuesday, 21st April 2009 22:20
OH MY GOSH THAT'S SO HORRIBLE!!!!! Now i'm really scared! I hope they don't cancell anime-expo cause if I can't see momusu i'll just die!!!! X(


Comment by Matt_D on Tuesday, 21st April 2009 22:38
@sozomusume
No chance of that happening, they have a fair wodge of cash and are quite established (we're talking tens of thousands of attendants over the course of the event). But hope they don't go to connichi actually as it's full.


Comment by ddrchik on Wednesday, 22nd April 2009 00:59
Paul..i'm so sorry :( You and Hexi were first to come to mind when i found out about this.hope you guys can still go on the trip and have a really fun time


Comment by BladeMaster on Wednesday, 22nd April 2009 01:27
Bummer news, I feel your pain.


Comment by Aoi♥Usagi on Wednesday, 22nd April 2009 03:32
Awww! When I heard that the Stockholm expo was canceled, you were the first person to come to mind. But hey, at least if you're going to go to bed and cry, you have a Chinami pillow to hug!


Comment by jaargilon on Wednesday, 22nd April 2009 08:40
Long time lurker here. I am coming from Milwaukee, WI, USA to this, everything booked and money out of pocket.... Totally bummed. I hope everyone else coming from some distance away will be able to make the best of their time in Sweden without H!P/Buono!. :)


Comment by JapanFiles on Wednesday, 22nd April 2009 09:48
Paul -- if you organize a get-together, JapanFiles will sponsor some prizes for all you guys who made the commitment to go support BUONO!


Comment by Hexi on Wednesday, 22nd April 2009 15:47
ddrick: haha. i couldn't go anyways so i'm not missing out on anything. apart from signed photos.
>w<


Comment by jyoru on Thursday, 23rd April 2009 05:10
Not to rub it in, but instead to give hope to the LA crowd, apparently Tsunku has written a song exclusively for Anime Expo:

"I wrote this song just for Anime Expo® 2009. I imagined everybody’s smile when I wrote it, and I’m looking forward to seeing you guys at the MORNING MUSUME concert. I hope new great energy will be born at the convention from this collaboration between Japanese and US culture, and that it will last into the future.” -Tsunku

If H&A made it to the USA, best believe that MM is coming...

@ Paul: Get a group together and bring back some cool stuff, man... I'm bummed that Buono! got cancelled, and I wasn't going. Think of the repeat fans the expo's losing by doing that. Not H!P's fault, I'd say.


Comment by Rick on Thursday, 23rd April 2009 05:17
Euro-guys(and gals) I'm sorry you have to miss our. do you know if it's possible to have Buono! goto France for the big con there?
The way things are going I'm considering putting myself deeper into debt and make the trip to LA for MorMu. Since Hangry & Angry came to my "hometown" it didn't take as much for me to go. I hade some friends that I am looking forward to seeing again in LA(almost as much as seeing our girls live).


Comment by Rad on Thursday, 23rd April 2009 09:00
My bet is that Buono! and UFA will take a big hit even if they cancel their trip, so why not make it to Sweden and do the concert anyway?

Leave it to the socialists to screw this one up.




Comment by Rad on Thursday, 23rd April 2009 10:23
On second thought, I'm not going to stand for this without some kind of measured but urgent response. Please join me in an e-mail campaign directed straight at the Swedish Embassy to the U.S. in Washington, D.C.

Some primary suggestions:

E-mail the Swedish Embasy immediately. My e-mail is already on the way.

Here’s the address:

ambassaden.washington@foreign.ministry.se

Suggested text:

Swedish Ambassador to the United States
Embassy of Sweden
2900 K Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20007

Dear sir:

An outrageous international incident has been created by the organizers of the Stockholm Japan Expo 2009, an event which is to take place May 22-24 in Stockholm. The organizers have canceled this event, only a month before it was to take place.

Fans from around the world have committed resources to be at this special event, especially since a world-class musical ensemble, Buono!, was to make its first European appearance ever.

Further, the great nation of Japan and its sensational music companies, Hello! Project and Up-Front Artists, have been robbed of an opportunity to show the world a positive, upbeat program of music and dance that would have dramatically lifted spirits in light of the global economic crisis we all find ourselves facing.

Cancellation of the Stockholm Japan Expo 2009 in unwarranted and preventable. How? By providing a bailout package directly from the Swedish government, at least enough to keep the Buono! concert date alive. Failure to do this will leave a stain of unreliability on Sweden that will not soon be washed away.

Sweden, like all G20 nations, benefited from the $1 trillion bailout provided by the U.S. during President Obama’s visit. Take a tiny fraction of that and save the Stockholm Japan Expo 2009, or at least Buono!’s appearance, and do this immediately so that further damage to Sweden’s global reputation can be avoided.

Thank you and may God bless the Swedes.

(Signed, ____)




Comment by Kid on Saturday, 25th April 2009 23:05
Swedish women. mmmmmm. can i come? (on the trip..)


Comment by I hate you Rad on Friday, 1st May 2009 00:11
Come on man!!! Stop being such a douche bag. They are not coming and there is little the government cares or will do to make you happy. Your little world of fandom makes no difference in the eyes of a nation such as Sweden!!!


Comment by The Chris on Friday, 1st May 2009 00:29
I actually struggle to think why any goverment would care.

In fact if my goverment did care I would be rather concerned.

Some where in the world a small child is going to die because their government don't provide sufficient aid to help those in there societies that live in abject poverty. Yet we don't write letters about that to ambassador's, no instead we want to write letters about 3 Japanese teenage girls not going to a party in Sweden.

Really . . . . . . . . I think some perspective is needed.




Comment by Rick on Friday, 1st May 2009 01:47
I think if the government cared about the economy, they would try to make it happen. Having thousands of people from all over the world there spending money for at least 3 days. Here in Seattle for Sakura-con the city got about a 13 mil boost to the economy. Hotels, resteraunts, bars, all sorts of stores would be getting a boost with all the tourists running around throwwing their money around.


Comment by The Chris on Friday, 1st May 2009 02:12
If that many people gave a shit surely they wouldn't have to cancel the whole expo. I doubt they have cancelled it just for giggles.

More likely in the current economic climate people figure there are better ways of spending their money and so are just gonna dress up like cartoon characters and stay home to watch Naruto.

Also this is Stockholm we are talking about, they get enough tourist trade as it is I am sure and people going there are hardly going to throw cash around. It is one of the most expensive countries in Europe and the Euro as a currency is very strong.

Governments need to focus on long term job creation, a 3 day expo isn't keeping people in jobs now is it?

I mean no disrespect at all to anyone but to think that one expo helps a countries economy or makes a difference to anyones lives but your own is a slight delusion of grandeur. There is no reason at all that any Goverment should get involved in something like this, its not a bank or a large scale industry at threat here.

What has happened is sad and I am sorry to all the fans, I have to put up with Pauls crying all week about it which I assure you is no fun. But still its just an expo.

Oh and I for one am chuffed to bits, as me and Paul cannot get a refund on our flights I now get to go to Sweden and spend all my time looking at beautiful woman and enjoying an amazing city rather than being stuck in a massive concrete box that I am guessing will smell of stale beef flavoured crisps.


Comment by Matt_D on Friday, 1st May 2009 10:43
@The Chris
Apples and Oranges, comparing a persons active interests to global welfare. Also it opens up huge socio-economic discussion (the small child dying in a country) why would parents have children in such countries? Is more population necessary as evidently the deaths indicate the country has no capacity to support further growth? Is limited capacity due to mismanagement or national poverty? Why does the government still exist? Would replacing the government help? Alot of people like to wave into the issue with good old fashioned western pity, but often it's a bit more complex, The people helping can have a devestating effect often converting a nation to an aid/charity dependent nation (Haiti) instead of helping to rebuild a countries economy, as the country becomes the pet project of do gooders who often have a personal view of how a nation should work (which is interestingly often closely related to pol pots "agrarian utopia".)

But no a government wouldn't care for an expo, just look at the UK the first time the Car Expo has been cancelled since its inception or some such. It's a sily notion, the only hope was that a sponcer turned up - they didn't, game over.

Personally I think they should raise the personal allowance to £11,000 so it becomes advantagous for unemployed people to work instead of claim benefits, (you may get less tax but you pay less out in benefits) and there are truck loads of jobs at the bottom end of the scale, my friend over from Japan took 2 days to find and secure a bottom rung job in London. However a citizen wouldn't do it coz benefits are more or less the same.

Did anyone gain anything from the 2.5% drop in VAT?


Comment by The Chris on Friday, 1st May 2009 23:35
@Matt_D:

Ahhhh a voice of reason, and an intelligent one at that!

Sir I agree with you on many if not all of your points, especially the personal allowance issue and congratulate you on a well written comment.

2.5% drop in VAT was nothing short of a bad joke! Ask any retailer. Smaller shops didn't bother passing it on as it wasn't cost effective and larger stores must have surely lost money from the shear weight of work involved. Crazy.

Just to say I wasn't comparing a persons personal interests to global welfare directly, I understand the complexities in the issue I raised entirely. However the wording on the suggested letter made it seem as if this was an international incident. I used an extreme example to highlight what should be of real global concern and what we should be writing to our ambassadors about. Also the other reason for me extreme response was that I was some what angered by the tone of the letter and some of the wording which went way beyond extreme and in to the realm of the mental.

Oh and one last thing, not to you but to the writer of the suggested letter:

"Thank you and may God bless the Swedes. "

I really don't think the Swedes want that, it is one of the most secular countries in the world.




Comment by Matt_D on Saturday, 2nd May 2009 02:42
@The Chris
I have to admit you're a stronger man then I, I couldn't bring myself to finish reading the letter beyond scannng it and coming to the conclusion that it was a wee bit "extreme". I simply latched upon your comparisions (as they were readable and interesting). I have a thiing for extreme comparision - it floats my discussion boat.

But intence people are extreme and people in senior positions are experianced in dealing with people of extreme emotion, we can be rest asured it shall be the least extreme letter such an official shall receive and may even give an officail a moment to think "jeez there is still a real world out there obsessed with concerts, events and other frivilous exploits."

i can understand the off the cuff intencity on all sides. His letter/mail, your responce and mine. It's all just what makes normal life a little bit more interesting.

Now I'm gonna finish this beer and get some more salvage.

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