School Festival in Korea
School Festival
Now that the end of the semester is drawing near, it’s time for the school festival. The festival is the largest event of the spring semester. The first part of the festival consists of students setting up booths to raise funds for their organizations or majors. The set-up is similar to the booths set up during the First Look Fair. Since it is a way to raise funds, it is common for the booths to sell food or have games and activities that cost money. Unfortunately, during the festival this year, there was a severe thunderstorm on both days and it was cancelled.
Despite that, there was still the second part of the festival to look forward to. It is called Akaraka. It is essentially a show for the students from the cheerleaders. Tickets to this event is super competitive and as exchange students, the only way to get these tickets was through a raffle system. Unluckily, I did not get the tickets. However, two days before the event, they announced that there were 300 extra tickets and they were going to be sold on a first-come-first-serve basis. When I heard that, I knew I had to get the tickets and lined up four hours before the distribution time (there was already a line then).
On the day of Akaraka, I was fortunate enough that it stopped raining and it was a clear day. I arrived at noon so I could get a good seat, not knowing that the show didn’t actually start until 3pm. The show started off with Yonsei cheerleading songs and the crowd singing and dancing along. The voices of the students filled the stadium and the students swayed to the music. There was so much school spirit!
After the cheering end (they have so many songs), came the part everyone was waiting for—the singers! Every year during the school festival season, singers all over Korea are invited to perform at university school festivals and Yonsei is known to invited the best ones. Yonsei definitely did not let me down with their line up this year. I even got to see PSY! I had a wonderful time there and I recommend all the exchange students to go if they get the chance to!
View of the stage from where I was standing.
Students clapping along to the cheering song.
PSY’s introduction before he performed for us.
