On a late Monday afternoon, Jeff Goh and his team - clad in head-to-toe backstage black - entered the lobby of The Kallang, formerly the Singapore Sports Hub. Jeff, 41, reports calmly that the morning rain has delayed the build of the three BLACKPINK photo booth experiences. He seems unfazed.
"The most difficult thing is the 'what ifs,'" he says. "What if it floods? What if the sun fades the paint? We have to build something that withstands the weather, but also withstands 10,000 people touching it."
To the general public, Jeff is best known as the voice of their early morning commutes; he has been a fixture on the Chinese radio station YES 933 for years. But when the broadcast ends, the radio persona steps back, and the CEO of Spur Media Group emerges. In his multi-hyphenate career, Jeff orchestrates large-scale event activations, a job that is less about celebrity and more about the unglamorous logistics of crowd flow, structural safety, and brand fidelity.
His latest project: a collaboration with The Kallang - a sprawling fan activation running concurrently with BLACKPINK’s three-day pit stop in Singapore as part of their <DEADLINE> world tour. It is a high-stakes assignment. The intersection of K-pop fandom and live events has evolved beyond merchandise booths and the performance itself; it is about making the BLACKPINK universe tangible - even for one special evening.
"Concerts are no longer just about the concert itself," Jeff observes. "The show starts days before the artist steps on stage."
With ticket prices ranging from SGD $168 to $428 for the VIP package, it’s no surprise that fans want to extract every ounce of value from the experience. These blockbuster concerts have become major milestones on the social calendar. Leaning into the hype, coordinating a concert-day outfit with friends, and posting a photo dump of hazy 0.5x selfies is all part of the ritual.
The concept Jeff and his team devised is deceptively simple: Recreate iconic sets from BLACKPINK’s music videos - DDU-DU DDU-DU (near the Water Sports Centre), As If It’s Your Last (near Kallang Leisure Park), and Kill This Love (near Stadium Riverside Walk) - so that fans can step inside the BLACKPINK universe. Jeff predicts that DDU-DU DDU-DU will be the star attraction, considering it is the group’s most popular track with 2.3 billion YouTube views.
This creates a unique design challenge - the physics of the fandom itself. Jeff calculates the logistics with grim pragmatism: If 10,000 fans arrive thirty minutes before the gates open, that is 300,000 minutes that can either build hype or spell disaster. As always, the devil is in the details, and execution requires a complex negotiation between the polished fantasy of the screen and the reality of a tropical city expecting over 100,000 fans across three days.
"You can’t just have a photo wall anymore," he says. "It has to be three-dimensional. It has to be immersive." But it also has to be durable. Unlike a music video set, which only needs to look good for the camera lens, these installations must survive the enthusiasm of thousands of Blinks who want to touch, pose, get the perfect shot, and then hurry along to the venue.
"We buy six items even if the client pays for three," Jeff says, referring to the props. "If a chess piece breaks, you can’t wait for a reorder. You need the spare in the back."
This attention to detail extends to the human element. Jeff describes the ushers and ground crew not as security, but as "actors." The sheer density of the crowd means the staff must be efficient, but the nature of the event requires them to be empathetic to the fan experience. Spur Media Group even compiled a glossary of BLACKPINK terminology for the crew - a crash course in member names, song titles, and fandom lore - so they wouldn't just be directing traffic, but inhabiting the same cultural universe as the attendees.
"It might be your thousandth customer," Jeff tells his team, "but for them, it is their first time. You have to treat it that way."
When asked about the criticism that Singapore lacks the ability to execute world-class event experiences - often attributed to a small market or a lack of specialized talent - Jeff is diplomatic but firm.
"I would say there are many talented people in Singapore - lighting designers, builders," he says. "They just don't always have the platform to showcase their work."
In many ways, Jeff and his team are forging that path for the local industry. For him, this dual career seems to feed a specific kind of hunger. "I know many people my age who have been in this industry for a long time. There’s still a lot of passion there," he says. "If it's just for the money, you probably won’t last. You might have fun in the first two, three years because of the glamour and the privileged access. But if you don't have that passion to wow people, to impress your audience, you will lose steam halfway."
He speaks of the fatigue of the industry but invariably returns to the singular gratification of creating a live experience. "You need to have that kind of hunger, to want to show off," he says. "It doesn’t matter if it is a small gala dinner or a massive activation. When you feel the audience’s reaction - that is the satisfaction."
Missed out on this exclusive BLACKPINK experience? Keep your eyes peeled for more exciting events by The Kallang.
