Chapter 497: Venue and Time

Chapter 497 Venue and Time

“A venue for ten thousand? Are you sure?”

When Shi Shiwu heard that Meng Fan’s concert was set for ten thousand people, he was genuinely taken aback: “Since when did you become so modest?”

Given Meng Fan’s popularity, the acclaim for this album, and his vocal prowess and overall abilities, even if his first concert directly chose an eighty-thousand-seat venue, it wouldn’t have been surprising—at least fifty thousand would have been expected.

Choosing a ten-thousand-seat venue—are you worried tickets won’t sell, or do you think your voice is too precious for too many people to hear?

Meng Fan said, “Modesty is one thing, but mainly it’s my first solo concert. I can’t just jump straight to eighty thousand or a hundred thousand seats. One must be grounded in life and take things step by step.”

After this solo concert, once he completed the task and earned the achievement, Meng Fan had no immediate plans to hold any more concerts.

He had previously attended concerts by Bai Zhi and Su Qingcen. The few hours of performance on stage were one thing, but the real drain was the rehearsals and run-throughs during the preparation process.

No matter how good his singing or how strong his stage presence, he would still need to invest significant time in rehearsals and run-throughs—at the very least, he had to familiarize himself with the stage; things like the lift platforms, and he also had to coordinate with the live band and even the dance crew. Otherwise, while he might be flawless in every aspect, the others wouldn’t know what to do. And a concert isn’t just about showcasing vocal ability—stage effects also play a significant role.

This was also one reason Meng Fan chose a ten-thousand-seat venue: a smaller venue was easier to manage, and the time and effort spent on preparation and rehearsals would be less.

After all, Meng Fan had only ever participated in others’ concerts and knew very little about concert preparation—only that a smaller scale was more convenient. So he naturally had to consult Shi Shiwu for experience in this area.

A few minutes later, Meng Fan waved his hand: “Um, Uncle Fifteen, don’t say anymore. I think I’ll just leave the concert preparation to your team. As for what I need to do, have your team list it out for me.”

The preparation work was simply too complex, with many details and procedures Meng Fan had never even heard of. It was best to leave professional matters to the professionals.

Originally, given Meng Fan’s current popularity, he would definitely have a team around him, and concert matters wouldn’t require much of his worry—someone would handle everything. Unfortunately, he had no such team, and his manager was only occasionally borrowed from Hu Yijing, so now he had to borrow Shi Shiwu’s.

“That’s no problem. But you need to set a rough time for the concert yourself. Also, you’ll have to think about your requirements and concepts for the concert. Or, I can have my team come over, and you can chat with them first. Otherwise, who knows what kind of concert you want to put on.”

“Alright, then arrange a meeting time. I’m free these next few days.”

Shi Shiwu checked the time and said, “The team is in Shanghai. Coming from there… Let’s give it enough time. Meet at six in the evening, talk over dinner.”

“Fine. Why are you looking at me like that?”

“…If there’s nothing else, you can leave now. I need to catch up on sleep.”

“Catch up on sleep? Come on, take me to work out. Today, this Five-Gold King is in a good mood and will give you free physical training. Look at your scrawny frame—if you don’t exercise, in at most two years, you won’t be able to pull an all-nighter.”

“Nonsense! I’ve been exercising, okay?”

“If you’ve been exercising, even better. You have a foundation, so I’ll go a bit harder.”

“Hey! I’m not going! I want to sleep!”

“After the workout, I guarantee you’ll sleep like a baby!”

Like a baby—that was true.

After being “forcibly” taken to work out by Meng Fan, Shi Shiwu, having enjoyed the Five-Gold King’s training service, met with the team in the evening. Within minutes, he slumped in his chair, head tilted, fast asleep, with a grain of rice still stuck at the corner of his mouth.

Meng Fan roughly discussed his ideas with Shi Shiwu’s concert team, and they quickly drafted a preparation plan based on his thoughts. Meng Fan found it basically acceptable and decided to proceed with the plan. As for the finer details, those would naturally need to be refined during the preparation process—first, because it was his first collaboration with them, and second, because Meng Fan himself was still in a fog and needed time.

The concert time was roughly set between New Year’s Day and before the Spring Festival. The exact date would depend on the venue’s availability. No matter how fixed the date was, if the venue wasn’t available, it wouldn’t work.

As for the location, it was Hangzhou, mainly for convenience.

Hangzhou had plenty of venues suitable for a ten-thousand-person concert, but unfortunately, most were already booked during this period. Indeed, demand for venues was high at this time, especially around New Year’s Day—all were full. Before the Spring Festival, besides concerts, these venues also hosted annual meetings for large companies. Unless it was after the 25th of the lunar month, it was hard to find a suitable venue one or two months in advance.

So what to do? Push it back further?

Not necessary.

It was indeed hard for most stars to find a suitable venue, but Meng Fan was an exception.

Concert halls and commercial sports arenas were unavailable, but there were still sports arenas not open for commercial performances—for example, parts of the newly built Hangzhou Olympic Center that weren’t open for commercial shows, large university gymnasiums, and large training facilities for national or provincial teams. These were generally not available for commercial rental to ordinary stars, but for Meng Fan, they were willing.

In the end, Meng Fan settled on a multi-purpose gymnasium at the Hangzhou Olympic Center, with twelve thousand seats and a maximum capacity of fifteen thousand. It was scheduled to host several events, including judo, during the Hangzhou Asian Games. The facility was fully equipped and had been prepared for commercial use after the Asian Games, but so far, it had only hosted three sports events and had excellent functionality in all aspects.

Meng Fan shamelessly dragged Dean Zhan along to negotiate. While going alone would have been fine, having Dean Zhan there made certain conversations easier. Of course, the ease didn’t extend to the venue rental fee—Meng Fan never cared much about money, and he planned to donate all concert proceeds anyway. The main negotiations were about other aspects, like schedule flexibility. After securing it, Meng Fan would have more time for preparation, stage setup, and rehearsals. Typically, concert venues had strict requirements in these areas, leaving little time.

With the venue settled, the date was fixed.

Originally, Meng Fan had planned to hold it around New Year’s Day or even on New Year’s Eve, but later changed it to January 11th. This wasn’t due to concerns about preparation time but to accommodate the schedules of concert guests like Shi Shiwu.

Shi Shiwu and the others would definitely have invitations for New Year’s Eve galas, and they wouldn’t have time to come for rehearsals and run-throughs during that period. Even if they would come if Meng Fan set it on New Year’s Eve, it would still block others’ “financial opportunities,” which wasn’t ideal.

(This chapter ends)