From Sept. 14 to Sept. 16, Ewha hosted the 136th Daedong festival RE:WHA in-person for the first time in three years. This year’s theme was “Rewriting Ewha’s Green” in hopes of revitalizing the Ewha Green school spirit. On the day of the festival, thousands of students lined up in front of over 160 booths across the campus to eat freshly-cooked street food, purchase handmade accessories, and participate in interactive games. Many students came in Ewha Green outfits to show the school spirit.
Even before the booths officially opened, students formed a line to eat signature menus including tteokkochi, yakisoba, and Chapaghetti with eggs and cheese at the Student Union Building and Ewha-POSCO Building. Due to the popularity of the menus, some booths had to rush out to purchase more ingredients or even close up earlier than expected.
Kwon Min-jung, a sophomore from the Division of Communication & Media, was one of the members running the Communication & Media Student Council booth. A long line formed in front of the booth to try out the cheese rice cakes that students had prepared.
“I was elated to see many students enjoying the rice cheese cakes we have prepared,” Kwon said. “It was definitely a valuable opportunity for Ewhastudents to bond with one another.”
On Sept. 15 and 16, vibrant music from performances at the grass square next to the Main Gate and Student Union Building echoed across campus. From rock bands to Korean traditional Pungmullori, various school music clubs proudly presented their months’ worth of practice.
Vivacity, Ewha’s dance busking club, opened a charismatic performance with “Left & Right” by Seventeen and ended with a sensational stage of “Love Dive” by IVE on Sept. 15 at the grass square. The audience gave a roaring round of applause to a performance of verve and vitality.
Oh Yeon-seo, a sophomore majoring in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and leader of Vivacity, described how the members had trouble managing the stage formation as nobody knew how large the stage would be in advance. Members held frequent meetings to check on every detail including preparing for performance videos, commentaries, and emergencies such as rainfall.
Although there were obstacles they had to overcome during the preparation process, Oh believed that all those difficulties helped build unforgettable memories with the members. The hard work paid off on stage when the members danced synchronized movements with one another.
“We were honored to perform at the school festival where we could hear the cheers of friends and peers,” Oh said. “Thanks to the enthusiastic audience, we were able to dance more happily. It was sad that the performance seemed to have ended so quickly, but we look forward to next year’s Daedong festival.”
The Daedong TF crew added special events such as Random Play Ewha Dance, Ewha Green fashion show, and a special guest performance by singer-songwriter Sunwoo Jung-a.
At the Random Play Ewha Dance event, a large crowd formed to watch contestants jump onto the stage when they knew the dance of a random song. If the contestants did not know the song, the student was eliminated from the round. The audience lauded them as all the contestants synchronize to Aespa’s “Illusion.”
At the Ewha Green fashion show, dozens of contestants dressed in creative green outfits head- to-toe such as a green Christmas tree, green peas, and a green bicycle. Despite the sudden rainfall, the contestants struck dashing and comedic poses, bringing endless laughter from the audience.
The Daedong festival ended with a special guest performance by singer-songwriter Sunwoo Jung-a. The prolific singer-songwriter performed multiple hit songs, including “Run With Me,” “In the Bed,” and “Beyond My Dreams” from the recent hit drama series “Extraordinary Attorney Woo.” Thousands of students swayed back and forth rhythmically to the song with camera light flashes up in the air at the grass square.
Jeon Da-in, a freshman from the Department of Social Studies Education, shared some of the most memorable moments at the festival. She enjoyed the vibes of the booths near the Education Building where the atmosphere felt like a mixture of a flea market, a night market, and a festival. On her way back home, she unexpectedly watched the Random Play Ewha Dance for over an hour, mesmerized by the contestants’ adroit dance skills. She added that the Ewha Green fashion show seemed to highlight Ewha Green school spirit the most.
“Even though there were so many people, I could enjoy the festival while feeling safe and comfortable,” Jeon said. “The chill festival vibe is what really makes Ewha festivals unique from other college festivals.”
Behind the scenes of RE:WHA
The first in-person Daedong festival could not have magically happened without the Daedong TF crew. Han Ji-su, a junior from the Division of English Language & Literature and head of the Daedong TF crew, revealed that it was particularly challenging to prepare for the festival as the majority of the crew had no prior experience with the Daedong festival. Recent handover reports were for online festivals while offline handover drafts were nearly nonexistent. Yet, the Daedong TF crew pushed through, spending their entire summer break organizing, promoting, and designing.
“After planning out all the performances and programs, we were worried that students would not be interested in the festival,” Han said. “We were grateful to see that many people enthusiastically participated, especially at booths with one of the longest lines ever.”
Along with the Daedong TF team, LIKELION EWHA spent over a month pulling all-nighters to create “Re:wha 2022,” the official Ewha Daedong festival booth guide service website. Executives Jeong Da-yun, Kim Hye-bin, and Kim Do-yeon along with crew member Kwag Eun-jin delineated the complicated process of developing the website.
Kwag Eun-jin, a senior from the Division of Communication & Media and a member of the design & management team, disclosed that the team brainstormed several designs in which students could use the service easily and intuitively. As RE:WHA is most likely the first Daedong festival for most students, the team tried their best to minimize the number of touches required to use the service so that students could quickly access information in the hectic festival atmosphere.
Jeong Da-yun, a junior majoring in Computer Science and Engineering and executive of the front-end development, mentioned that there were critical errors in the website right before the deadline. Since a great number of users with various mobile devices were expected to access the website, the front-end developers had to program difficult codes that would work for everyone. Despite the complexity of the codes, the front-end developers successfully fixed the errors before the deadline.
Kim Do-yeon, a junior majoring in Computer Science and Engineering who was part of the back-end development, recalled the day when the website was released. While she was elated to find out that there were many users who accessed the website, she was also anxious that the limited service maintenance expenses would exceed due to the overflowing number of users. She spent the entire night that day reducing the amount of data usage to prevent the expenses from going over their budget, which she successfully handled.
After overcoming all the hardships, Kim Hye-bin, a senior majoring in Social Welfare, expressed that LIKELION EWHA was thrilled to find out that many students were interested in the website once it was released.
“I was over the moon to the point where I captured all the compliments about our website on the school community website” Kim said. “Above all compliments, we were most delighted to see many students actively use our websites. We were proud to see that students would naturally share our website to those who wanted more information on the festival and press ‘like’ buttons on booth promotion posts after accessing our website.”