Universities in South Korea have their own festivals where they celebrate school pride. A lot of the times, they’ll also invite idols and celebrities to perform at the festivals as well! Yonsei’s festival is called Akaraka, and it’s the most famous festival among all the universities in Seoul!

I feel really lucky that I even got to go to Akaraka in the first place. Originally I put my name into the general lottery for all Yonsei students, but then we found out exchange students aren’t allowed to participate in that and all our names got removed. So then I put my name into the exchange student lottery operated by Mentor’s Club, but I wasn’t lucky enough to get a ticket through that.

But then my friend May messaged me, asking if I wanted her Akaraka ticket since she was busy! And of course I immediately said yes! And she was even nice enough to sell it to me at face value :’) I really felt… honoured (?) that she asked me before anyone else, even though I just met her a few months ago!

Then on the day of Akaraka, a girl messaged my cell asking if anyone wanted her Akaraka ticket since she had a guest coming from Busan. Claudia and I just happened to be on our phones at that time and Claudia immediately swiped it up – and let Stef have the ticket.

Then my friend Rachel messaged me asking if I had tickets for Akaraka already, and said her club president was selling two. I immediately said yes i wanted them, and successfully got tickets for Jay and Yang. So 3 of my friends somehow got tickets on the day of of the concert!

Stef and I saw a booth putting tattoos on people’s faces so we got them too – a soju brand on one cheek, and Yonsei’s eagle on another cheek.

After lunch, we waited to get the tickets from the buyers, and then we headed into the amphitheatre to find seats. Before we went in, though, we saw a booth selling ‘cocktails’ so Stef, Claudia, and I each got one. Claudia and Stef got Sex On The Peach, and I got Mango Crush. Even though they could have been a lot colder (since it was really hot that day) they still tasted delicious and had no trace of alcohol taste in them – just the way I like it.

We were in a bit of a rush to get there since Yanting had said that people were starting to take up the seats that Mentor’s Club had reserved for the foreigners, but thankfully we still got pretty good seats. We ended up sitting there and baking for an hour before anything started happening ==”

It was so amazing to see all the blue shirts in the amphitheatre. Literally every single person in there was wearing blue – except for the few people who weren’t Yonsei students. UBC might say ‘bleed blue’ all the time but… they haven’t seen Yonsei yet!

First up was the Yonsei cheers to get everyone hyped up. There are so many different ones, and each one has a different dance – it was really confusing to learn initally but by watching other people it became a lot easier. Joonha also came over and did the cheers with us as well!

It’s funny because of Yonsei’s rivalry with Korea University, so a lot of the cheers are dissing KU in a joking manner 😛

Then there was a break, and there were some ‘normal’ (not celebrity) performers that sang some songs, danced some dances. Then the celebrities came out!

The line up this year started off with DOK2 and The Quiett, followed by Lee Hi, Hyukoh, WINNER, TWICE, Jang Kiha and the Faces, and finished off with Kim Yeonwoo.

Although the lineup wasn’t as good as it could have been (they got EXO and PSY to come last year…) I still had a lot of fun, and feeling the school atmosphere was absolutely amazing.

After all the celebrities performed, more cheering happened, and eventually we got really tired so we left when it was almost the end. There were also some fireworks as well!

We didn’t get any dinner, so we went out to Mom’s Touch afterwards and just sat on the street drinking and playing games. Until 5am. I think that was the first time I ever stayed out so late in South Korea… or just stayed out so late at all – usually if I stay out this late I’m actually in a building but never on a street. Even though we stayed out so late, I still felt really safe since all my friends were with me, and the street was well lit with all the signs.

I feel bad for those who didn’t get the opportunity to go attend Akaraka, especially those who could have but lost the opportunity to do so. But I’m just really glad that I got to go, since this experience really made my time as an exchange student at Yonsei alot more worthwhile – it really made me feel like I was part of the Yonsei community!