- Ozine updated the cover photo of their official page with Ozine Fest 2016 event dates covering a span of three days (April 15, 16, and 17) at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.

February 25

- A teaser was posted with regards to FLOW's concert.

March 01

- The official announcement of FLOW's performance is posted on Ozine's page, with the event dated April 16. Amuse Inc. Asia also posted the announcement on their page.

March 06

- Concert time, ticket prices and tiers, seat plan, and ticket inclusions are posted on an infographic.

- Ticket pre-selling should have been from March 7 -- a day after this announcement was made -- until April 7 only. Also, gates should have opened at 05:30 PM and the show should have started at 07:00 PM. More on that later!

- An e-mail address was given where interested buyers may send their e-mail inquiries for instructions on payment details. Since this is a concert for a well-known Japanese band and seats would obviously be limited, everyone interested eagerly sent their e-mails and waited for a response.

- Honestly, Google Forms or similar online form builders would have been more favorable and easier for both the interested party and Ozine instead of using a single e-mail address to filter, track, and send out hundreds (maybe even thousands) of responses for both inquiry and payment.

March 07

- I received an e-mail response from Ozine with details on how to pay for my tickets. The reply was noticeably not automated (although it was in a template format) since I received it hours after sending my inquiry. Around this time I was already seeing a few complaints from people who sent their inquiries much earlier than I did, however they were not able to receive a response yet.

- As stated in the e-mail, ticket payment would be settled via bank deposit, and payment verification e-mails would be sent within three to seven working days. This already posed quite a hassle since concert seats would be obviously be on a "first come, first served" basis, and there was no immediate assurance if the payment was verified or not. It would have been a lot easier to pay for the tickets using a third party ticketing system like TicketWorld or SM Tickets. I'm sure most people wouldn't have minded a price increase if this was utilized for the sake of convenience.

- While making my transaction at the bank, the teller informed me that the account number was not under the name of 'Otakuzine Anime Magazine' as stated in the e-mail instructions, but under Dennis Jordan M. Uy. I was completely surprised, but I decided to take the risk and make my deposit anyway since I was familiar with the name given as a member of the main team behind Ozine Fest.

- I e-mailed my payment details as soon as I made my deposit for my Gold tier ticket, and I included this issue and my thoughts on it as a heads-up to Ozine. I was also feeling quite anxious at this point because I risked Php 3000 (the payment I made included my friend's, as well) without being completely sure that I was depositing to the right account. Upon checking the event page, other people have also shared the same sentiments. Ozine subsequently addressed the issue with regards to the account name, and while I think the Ozine team did not expect this drawback it was already too late as there were some people who had to go to the bank a second time to make a correct deposit.

March 08

- To filter the volume of inquiries regarding FLOW's performance, Ozine created a separate page for inquiries regarding the concert. Although the page has garnered likes, most people continued to send their queries on the main Ozine page since it still gets the most updates, whereas this new page only shared related content and did not make any original posts or actually answered queries publicly. As of writing this post, I'm still not sure I saw the value in creating a separate page since I don't think it was even utilized well.

March 12

- Ozine finally made an official PSA regarding the payment/account name issues, among other things. I'll be addressing a couple of points they made.

- I understand their side, but the mindset of the paying public is technically "no evident proof, no actual assurance". It makes a valuable difference in at least being given a personal notice that ticket payment has been secured, even if actual details on how to claim the ticket are to follow afterwards as long as these are made within the three to seven working day span. Also, the fact that increasing queries and comments are left unanswered while only a select few, simple questions are responded to by the event page does nothing to help quell the paranoia many possible concert patrons were feeling.

- If they don't have the time to answer questions personally, posting an event FAQ would have helped greatly. While some Filipinos are notorious for not reading and find amusement in bugging people with easily answerable questions, a great deal actually do because it saves time and avoids small hassles (plus you can actually tell the annoyances to 'go and read the FAQ', so there).

- A real-time ticket counter shared to the public to help keep track of the number of tickets per tier that have been sold or are still available would have been useful as well. Some could have even gone for a higher-priced tier if they were aware of the available seat count.

March 15

- Ozine began to send the first batch of payment verification e-mails. They obviously maxed out up to the seventh working day, when people who managed to make their payments early were already expecting to get their verification on at least the third day.

- Here's where it gets incredibly vexing: upon downloading the attachment and reading my payment verification, I was surprised to learn that I had to claim my ticket on the first day of the event, April 15. I consider myself more of a tolerant rather than a patient person, and at this point I was already getting extremely frustrated. While I'm fortunate enough to have Friday as one of my days off from work, it was still a hassle to claim the ticket a day before the actual concert, much more for those who couldn't take an immediate leave from school or work to claim the ticket or those coming in from far-off locations in the country just to see FLOW.

- The tickets would also be released on a "first come, first served" basis and pass holders would be able to choose their seats upon providing their documents at the registration booth, so seat numbers were not yet guaranteed.  I wasn't sure if I had to purchase a separate ticket for the first day of Ozine Fest just to be able to claim my concert ticket, but it didn't really matter anymore because I just wanted to get this shit over with.

March 16

- Since the tickets I purchased included a friend's who wouldn't be able to claim hers on the said date, I inquired via comment on their post, private message to the event page, and e-mail if I could also claim her ticket. I was already getting anxious for answers since I knew I couldn't count on an immediate response, and I would hate to be told that I could not claim my friend's ticket. Thankfully, I was then informed that I only needed to present some specific documents (authorization letter, ID, and signed document from e-mail).

March 17

- I received a one-liner, rather robotic-sounding response to the e-mail I sent yesterday. If I ever did what they told me and sent a question to the FLOW inquiry page I'm not sure it would even be catered to right away (or at all), but hey, at least my inquiry was answered the day before.

March 26, March 28

- The event page is updated with posts about special guest DMYO and contest rules, but the entrance fee for the event is nowhere to be found even though it's less than a month away. Some potential attendees were already asking about it, and I also wanted to find out how much it was since at this point I might as well get one for the 15th, anyway. 

April 01

- The excitement is leveled up when Amuse Inc. Asia posted a video on their page of FLOW personally greeting their Filipino fans and promoting their concert! Ozine Fest also posted it on their page afterwards.

April 05, April 07

- Almost a week left until Ozine Fest and regular ticket prices for the event still haven't been posted. Attendees who were only going for the convention were starting to get miffed since their questions regarding the entrance fee remained unanswered, while the page only shared info on the meet & greet with guest cosplayers and updated their profile picture. 

April 11

- An announcement is made regarding an extension of FLOW concert ticket pre-selling until April 14, as well as additional slots for the Gold tier ticket.

- ...wait a minute, wasn't pre-selling supposed to end on April 7?!

- I felt pissed that the deadline was extended because I recalled how I managed to pay as early as possible for my Gold tier ticket so I would be able to secure my slot, only to find out that I had to go through another round of reserving my seat one day prior to the actual event. *sigh* I suppose they did this extension as a means of ROI. Okay then.

April 12

- An infographic of FLOW autograph and meet & greet details is posted on the event page with the simple caption "Here are the details for the FLOW Meet and Greet!"

- At this point in time, I'm already too exasperated to process the fact that these autograph and meet & greet sessions were announced days before the actual event. You also had to spend at least Php 2800 for the albums as well as be at least one of the first twenty people who sent in payment details to even be considered for the mentioned sessions (this doesn't sound the least bit fair for me). I don't know if there was anything holding back the announcement regarding the autograph and meet & greet, but I'd like to think that if it was made earlier then tickets would most likely have been sold faster if the paying public were made aware that they had a chance to personally meet FLOW.

April 13

- Amuse Inc. Asia shared a clearer, and much more detailed post on the Flow Autograph/M&G. Official FLOW shirts will also be sold on-site starting April 15 at the Ozine Booth Souvenir Shop. Amuse actually answered queries regarding these sessions, too.

- I then saw a post on my Facebook feed from a booth merchant who was taken aback and shared a screenshot from an e-mail from Ozine saying that instead of a three-day event, it had been moved to two days instead. April 15 would technically be ingress for booth set-up, and April 16-17 would be the actual dates of the event. This announcement was made so late! It was frustrating to know that Ozine Fest didn't even make an official announcement on their page yet, and I found out about this through someone else.

- Since April 15 would be event ingress, was there even going to be a registration booth to claim the FLOW tickets? I didn't want to ask any more questions from them, so I opted to wait for an official announcement from the event team.

- Minutes before the clock hit midnight of April 14, Ozine Fest finally announces the official details of the event. Again, I'll be addressing some points.

- Late announcement is still late. For a team which has been organizing events for years, I'm sure they could have done ways to publicly announce earlier that the span of the event would be cut short by a day. There also wasn't an explanation given as to why this was done so, as well. Booth merchants, people who planned to attend the first day of the event, and FLOW concert attendees like myself who were informed of the original ticket claiming date were hassled, albeit in various extents.
- The entrance fee is also noticeably pricier compared to their previous events, but since April 15 isn't part of the event dates anymore and my ticket tier already includes the entrance fee for April 16 I was not really affected.

- This also came across as pretty surprising to me. I'm not one to take risks often, and I don't regret purchasing my concert ticket (thank goodness I decided to go for Gold tier and not Silver like I'd planned, though), but there are a lot of fans willing to take the chance to line up early to be able to get the ticket tier they want (because hell, they'd be able to save a lot of cash too). The fact is that this chance should have been open for all from the very beginning.

- A lot of people had been asking since March 15 (!!) if they could claim their tickets on April 16 since they wouldn't be able to do so on April 15, and they didn't have someone they could authorize to do so. Almost a month of waiting, and an answer is finally provided. Ozine could have answered this a lot earlier so people who had this dilemma would be less worried.

April 14
- Ozine has done it again, and made a last minute edit to their announcement. Without any single explanation. Again.

*EDITED*

Flow Performance on April 16, 2016

Gates Open: 6:30pm

Show Starts: 8:00pm

- Someone actually commented regarding this, and it's annoying how Ozine's professionalism regarding everything that has happened simply... cannot be found? Around this time, I laughed and told myself the concert would start by 09:00 PM. (Nag-dilang anghel ata ako.)

April 15

- I decided to claim my ticket on this day to avoid the even longer lines on the day of the event itself, because regular convention attendees would be present too. I'd wanted assurance so I would check Ozine's post for comment updates every now and then. Apparently, SMX security were not informed about the ticket claiming on this day and some people had even started to line up as early as 09:30 AM. I wanted to wait until this issue was resolved because I was already damn tired of all the hassles that had piled up, and somehow I already knew it would be even more frustrating on the day itself.
- I arrived at SMX at 03:00 PM, hoping the line may have somehow shortened since it's already been an hour since registration was supposed to begin. The booth for Silver and Bronze tiers was located outside and didn't have a single line, so people were able to claim their passes immediately. I was led to Function Hall 5 when I asked where I could claim my Gold passes and not so surprisingly, I saw a line that went for frickin' ever. I didn't know where the line ended, but what really got to my nerves was when I realized how there was only one booth with one working laptop managing every single one of the people claiming their Gold passes. I gave the hell up and met with a friend in MOA.
- After passing the time, we returned to SMX with more than an hour left before the claiming was supposed to end by 08:00 PM. The line had progressively decreased since I'd left, but I still ended up waiting for more than an hour to claim my passes. I ended up getting them past 08:00 and our seats were located at the last couple of rows but hey, I finally had the passes!

April 16

- The day has come! I'm thankful they already managed to segregate the Gold pass holders from the regular convention attendees, although it still took some time before we were let into the convention hall first, which is the one convenient thing about this pass. The hall was still quite chilly, and it felt good making purchases from different booths in a huge space without a crowd of people (for the meantime). Also, the tarpaulin posters at the event still had the previous concert time on it, haha. I should have taken a photo.
- The meet and greet with the guest cosplayers, which was also part of the Gold pass inclusions, was... taken back. Gold pass holders who planned to attend were apparently told, "Who told you could attend the meet and greet?" Uh, it was part of the ticket we paid for?!? Seriously. Don't include it in the pass in the first place if you're just going to take shit back. This is already blatant lying. Eventually though, event organizer confusion included, they somehow managed to attend the M&G, .
- The FLOW M&G, however, didn't happen anymore and only the album signing pushed through. The official shirts weren't able to make it to the event, as well. Gah.

- Since the revised time when gates were supposed to open was moved to 06:30 PM, my friend and I decided to line up by 05:30 PM. A lot of people were already starting to line up in a serpentine manner, but the ticket tiers weren't segregated properly yet. After more than an hour of lining up, they started calling the first few rows of the Gold tier without even using a megaphone. People eventually had to pass the message to the back, but the calling eventually stopped for some reason and everyone had to sit and wait again.
- All of the FLOW concert attendees were then transferred to the hall next to the concert venue, and there we were asked to sort ourselves according to ticket tier, and then eventually for the Gold pass holders, by row and seat numbers. We kept on crossing the room back and forth following the signages marshalls were holding up front, confusing and making ourselves dizzy. I wanted to laugh because I felt like I was playing a game, and I was just so tired already.
- After another hour of waiting, an event organizer/marshall came up and announced to everyone in the room that they "were pressured by SMX security to make an announcement, and basically our supplier wasn't able to come up with the amount that FLOW's supplier is asking for so they are threatening to pull the plug. We're currently negotiating the terms of payment, so would you be willing to wait for a little longer?" As if we had any other choice!!! Fans had already been waiting for hours, and my friend was already getting hungry so we ran back to the convention hall to buy dinner.
- Nearly another hour has passed, and the attendees with the Gold passes were finally being let in first. I approached a marshall after noticing the seats didn't have numbers, so I asked where our row (Row 31) was located. He simply said "It's already free seating, since there are no more seating arrangements." WAIT, WHAT THE F--?!?
- There pretty much was very little difference among the three tiers at this point, and I was already imploding, but managed to secure our seats while my friend as well as her other friends who had Gold passes (and waited in line last April 15 for far longer than I did) and who were just as furious, approached an organizer and demanded an explanation. They came back even angrier, with vaguely answered questions and to note, an organizer who kind of scoffed or stifled his laughter while they aired out their complaints. Ozine, for the love of God, your professionalism is reeking.
- Everyone managed to calm down in time for the concert, and FLOW performed amazingly but I had issues with the stage! It wasn't elevated enough, so I had to jump or  keep myself on tiptoes often so I could see them. People from the Silver tier who managed to line up early even got a better view than I did. Effin' A.
- There were also issues with the mic and sounds; I noticed that Keigo especially had to put in extra effort to sing and the speakers didn't produce the sounds very well. My friend also told me that her friends who had closer seats in front noticed that the lights were swinging. This could have been potentially dangerous to the artists!!
- I also heard that some people managed to get in for free. When I left before they finished the last song (because I was close to not catching a ride home lol), I did notice that the doors were left wide open with SMX security staying right across and not beside them so I'm not sure if proper entry was even monitored anymore at this point. God. Damn it all.