Daedong Festival, the annual school festival where students take in an array of booths and performances, was held from May 14 to 16. Among the various booths, the 51st Student Government Association arranged seven special booths categorized under three main keywords: unity, leap, and solidarity.
The student council gave students a mission to collect stamps from all seven booths on the EWHA STUDIO ticket for a special prize.
Main booths at EWHA STUDIO
Unity: E-mu, Ewha’s central musical club, sold nachos with various sauces and successfully ran its booth. They showed teamwork through communication, sticking to their theme, “unity.” Also, the student council of the Department of Health Convergence held a booth under the theme of “fantastic harmony of various ingredients” selling watermelon-hwachae, a Korean dessert made with fruits and ice.
Leap: Path of International Cultural Exchange, a club that learns and experiences different cultures, sold mara-tteok bokki (stir-fried rice cake), with their motto “understanding different cultures and embracing various cultures.” Also, FOODDY, an academic club from the Department of Food Science and Engineering, embodied the keyword “leap” by selling cupcakes and bread rusks in hopes of helping their club thrive.
Solidarity: Café 1886, a booth consisting of individual members, was named after the year Ewha was established. A portion of the profit made from the booth by selling their earl grey black sugar bubble tea was donated to the Center for Women’s Culture and Theory to support publishing and translating books related to feminism.
Ewha Student Minority Council opened a booth where they sold eco-friendly book bottles with printed phrases that encourage students to find strength within each other’s vulnerability and ponder a society where everyone can live a good life.
Main stage programs
The main stage program was titled “Reply 1886,” following the retro theme of the festival. Student teams danced to songs of the early 2010s and sang famous animation theme songs with the whole audience sing along. After the student teams, voice actor Lee Yong-shin, K-pop stars Hatfelt, and Ahn Ye-eun were invited to perform, greeted by students filling the whole grass field.
“The fact that all the invited singers had affection for Ewha was touching,” said Kang Ye-ji, a freshman from the department of English. “The performances reminded us of our childhood and gave us female empowerment, which really suited the theme of the festival.”
Student council booth
The student council opened “Episode: Move, Remember, Together,” a booth on the solidarity project. The purpose of the booth was to reconsider the meaning of Ewha’s solidarity in resisting social irregularities and to give students the opportunity to take a look at this year’s solidarity schedule.
Late-night events
Considering that students could feel inconvenience with the Daedong Festival ending early in the afternoon, the student council organized several programs that took place at night.
One such program was the Ewha Night Market, which opened in front of the Student Union Building on the first day of the festival from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The booths run by students had a variety of food and beverages such as pork ribs, mara-fried rice, corn cheese, iced tea, and earl grey brown sugar bubble tea. While enjoying the food, people watched three performances at the Student Union sub-stage.
Aside from the booths run by the students, there was a booth held by the student council. The student council and Seoul’s Western Region Street Vendor Federation, a federation that corresponds to the nation’s violent control against street vendors, joined and sold vegan-bindaetteok. Through this solidarity, the student council shared the federation’s hopes for change.
“Not only was the bindaetteok delicious, but also the purpose of the solidarity booth itself was meaningful,” said Jeon Ye-jin, a freshman in the Department of Special Education. “I’m really glad that there are such programs to enjoy in the evening as well.”
Another program that took place in the evening was the Daedong Ewha Film Festival, where the movie “Begin Again” was played at the Lawn Plaza on the second day after the performance.
On May 16, which was the last day of the Daedong festival, the night market Moonlight Safari was held by the College of Social Sciences at Ewha 52nd Avenue from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Although the flea market zone was canceled due to lack of participation, other zones such as street performance, food, sangria, and goods were open for students.
“The reason our college held a night market was to keep the promise we made with the students,” said Won Eun-seol, the 24th co-representative of College of Social Sciences. “In addition, we wanted to ensure and expand students’ culture and welfare rights through the event.”