The Fall Art Festival was held at Konkuk University by CHEONG SHIM, the General Student Association (GSA), from October 28 to 30. The main theme for this year’s art festival was “retro”. Programs related to this theme and other special events were prepared for students to participate in.

Outdoor sets showing the streets of the 1970s ans 1980s were prepared for students take pictures with. The sets illustrated how stationery stores, coffee shops, and classrooms used to look like in the past.Students had the chance to experience old entertainments at “Konkuk Arcade”. Four different arcade games, a boxing machine, and a slingshot game were free to play and rewards were given to those who got a high score. Making Dalgona, an old sugar candy street food, was also free try out. A photo studio taking only black-and-white photos took reservations for the first two days of the art festival. Despite the relatively low quality of the photos, many students visited the studio and the studio’s schedule was fully booked. Students were also able to eat foods from food trucks inside the campus. Items such as dak gangjeong and sotteok-sotteok (sausage skewers with rice cake) were provided. Korean traditional beverages such as sikhye and omijacha were free for students to drink.

The Fall Art Festival was not all about retro. CHEONG SHIM and many students had prepared other programs too. Under the program “Sing Street”, busking teams had the chance to perform a t three places near Cheongshimdae . The teams prepared many songs including the ones students had requested in advance. The new school mascot “KU” was also a big part of the art festival. Five standing signboards of KU were placed here and there on the campus, and gifts were given to those who posted pictures of at least three of them on Instagram. KU merchandise such as pens, bags, and power banks were also given out as rewards or sold at discounted price. A big balloon of KU floated on Lake Il-gam for students to see and take pictures of. On the night of the second day, the special concert “Song Fall You” was held with Davichi, Maktub, and Hwang In-wook performing.

CHEONG SHIM also exhibited photos showing the historical meaning of the festival. The Fall Art Festival started from an event commemorating the October 28 KU struggle in 1986. The KU struggle was a student democratization movement against dictatorship. The struggle started at October 28 and lasted for 66 hours and 50 minutes, ending on October 30. The exhibition gave students the opportunity to think about the hardships people had to overcome to achieve the liberty we enjoy today.

By Choi Eun-jun