Psy in Penang

Psy performing Gangnam Style in Penang

The Gangnam Style isn't really my favorite song and Psy isn't my favorite singer. And yet that day I waited almost 1 hour under the scorching sun in the field of Han Chiang high school, hot and sweaty surrounded big crowd of people with the same purpose ; to see he perform Gangnam style in 4 minutes.
It was the second day of CNY last Monday, BN organized CNY open house and they had invited Psy to perform that day. There was a lot of political story came along with the show, but I'm not writing anything about that here. There is plenty of other website and blogs talking about it, but not here. Just recording my experience.



I wasn't really planning to go that morning, because I expected there will be a lot of people, traffic jams, but when I opened FB that morning there was a lot of people talking about it, I thought why miss this chance to shoot photos of world famous artist today, so  I made my way to the Han Chiang at about 11am.
There was a lot of people and traffic jam as expected but I managed to park my car about a kilometer away and walked there.
There were a lot of people the packed even in the entrance. There were even FRU standing by, just in case of a riot.

When I got there Shila Amzah, a famous singer was rumored to be missing because of personal issue, was performing, unfortunately I couldn't get through the crowd on time to get a good position to take a clear photo of her.

When I finally got to position Shila was off the stage and there was speeches from the organizing party, the prime minister, followed by CNY song by them also.

Prime Minister giving a speech

Prime minister wife singing

Yam seng

At about 12.15pm the wait was over when finally Psy came on stage  to perform and the people was cheering loud. He chat for a while, apologizing for the long wait etc before he start to perform.

When he started singing the crowd went crazy, some was singing along at the chorus and some was jumping (they cannot dance along because no space).

Oppa Gangnam style

A lot of people was taking photos and video using from cellphones to compact to DSLR. It was a hot sunny day, a good thing about this is that there was a lot of light, so no worry about motion blur or camera shake even using long telephoto lens, handheld. Not so good about this is due to the bright light my camera LCD screen is hard to see and aim. A flip screen would be handy at this situation. A view finder won't be useful because need to shoot over the head unless you want to shoot people's head. Nevertheless I managed to get some good shots.

After finished his performance, the crowd cried for more and he perform it once again. Before he began, he asked to stop shooting photos and enjoy the show. But it didn't stop me to shot him the last time without the glass and jacket.

The show lasted less than half an hour. And when it was over, people just start to go back. But I stayed a while, let the road clear a bit. Took some more photos, drink some free drinks. When I finally went home about 1.30pm there was still traffic jam.

The show after Psy. Not so many people already.

Food by nasi kandar Nasmir

It was hot and sweaty but I had fun shooting photos and enjoyed the gangnam style show. More photos click here.