Sending a flower stand is an East Asian custom. The most amusing ones I’ve seen was when I went to Surabaya to attend a friend’s wedding. Being kind of a big deal I guess, his company, their clients, various neighborhood orgs and individuals all sent these large flower stands. Some are just your traditional-on-four-stilts type. Others are basically billboards by the side of the road made up of flowers. I mean, being Asian I saw them at weddings, funerals, store openings, and other “big” events. And in Japan, I see them at concerts.

The first time I saw otaku flower stands going to concerts was at MOIW 2014. The stands spanned across a good third of the main concourse. There were all kinds, but most notably were these similarly-formatted stands for every idol including Shacho and Kotori. Later I would learn that they were organized off 2ch. And in some ways this was peak. I think in MOIW 2015 there were literally like a kilometer worth of flower stands, and I now sort of shudder to think how much effort it was to deal with it. I guess on the other hand they were very much the full gamut of the most inexpensive to the most elaborate, but you still have to stick to the dimensions and regulations set by the event organizers. Maybe it’s a bit like an art contest, but more like an art family of love and appreciation.

I think more over the whole flower stand thing became its own thing, especially when it takes like 20 minutes to even see all the flowers by walking that kilo or more. I guess if I was doing something like hosting an IDOLM@STER concert at Seibu Dome, I can kind of wing it–there’s plenty of space, the weather was not the worst (imagine if it really poured), and at some level you kind of left it to people to fend for themselves. Japanese people are really good at self-organizing after all, and the visitors are respectful generally speaking.

But if you’re doing a show at SSA, K-Arena, or something much smaller than a stadium, you’re going to be under a lot more constraint. I can see why some shows don’t even bother with flower stands. I think everyone agree that we like these gesture of celebration to some degree, that the fans send flowers as an act of appreciation, but it’s a little too one-sided for me. This is not even mention the occasional drama that could occur from expensive fan projects, given these days the flower stands run from $500 to over $2000 even.

Actually that has been a persistent problem–most westerners who learn this cultural act actually do not know what it is like to deal with flower stands from a concert runner/promoter point of view. It’s why it will cost Anime Expo at least $500 plus union labor per hour to babysit a $500 flower stand outside Peacock Theater, so it will unlikely ever happen. It’s why you can’t just put a flower stand anywhere in the dealer room, because the fire marshal may have to OK your floor plan and which western con is going to take that into account? Or more like, even if it’s not very hard (and I don’t think it is), some guy working at a high enough level at the con has to give their 2c to make the magic happen. What magic? Maybe a photo op for the guest and some optics. I hope it’s worth the while.

[Otakon this year has a flower arrangement display near the panel room area that was roped off. It’s actually perfect for flower stands. If the right person can be reached maybe it might even work.]

I think it’s both “too much” and not enough– not many con in this country will sustainably grab guests that will have fans with enough motivation, disposable time, effort, money and skill to do it. This is why I actually prefer the Time Square ad drop, or what Bandai Namco has been working with, in terms of just actual ads in actual ad slots around town. If you’re going to throw $1000 in flowers, maybe sponsor a couple ads. You’re actually putting money into “use” and not just to flaunt at other fans attending the event. I guess flaunting is the purpose but there’s no less of that in a proper cheering ad… Just that things are much easier to deal with for the concert organizer.

I wonder how the nobori things work in comparison. Maybe it’s a push, and at least Bannam pockets the money that florists would otherwise get.

If you got too much money hosting flower stands because whatever you were doing was a popular IP and foreigners don’t have an easy way to run their own stands, maybe do what 2ch did back in the day and just play the middleman? I think it would be pretty neat.

Anyways, let me just end on this golden rule/warning. It would certainly be folly to spend too much on flowers that you can’t spend on other normal things. Flower stands are extra…nobody needs them, in a very literal sense. And when extra things cause strife, it’s what I call a self-own. The goal of these concerts is to have a good time, to shower your appreciation to the cast members or artists or whoever. Please remember the staff that run the shows also! Things like ads and even a letter to the person you like in the present box will speak just as much as having your name scribbled on a little piece of a flower stand in a sea of plants, if not more so.

PS. As I write this, the news about Aki Toyosaki’s husband just got out and I feel so bad about it. The grieving can have all my condolences.