Ipselenti is a yearly pep-rally-cheering festival organized and conducted by the KU Cheerleaders on the last night of university festival (Daedongje). I can't remember the exact price of a ticket, but I think it was around $14.
We arrived at the venue at around 1:30pm, and there were already so many people there. My friends contemplated sitting throughout the event, knowing that we would get tired standing like we did during the previous festival concerts throughout the week. But we figured we were here for the experience, so we decided to stand in the pit throughout the entire show. We weren't that far from the stage, but we were surrounded by super tall dudes, so my shorter friends and I had to strain our necks to get a better view lolol.
The first performer to come out on stage was QWER, an project idol band. I wasn't too familiar with them, but I knew that one of their songs called "Discord" did pretty well on charts. They've been pretty well-known for their Japanese rock sound, which I would say is relatively rare in the K-Pop scene. They did a great job at opening the concert.
Next was Dynamic Duo. They’ve recently gained more attention for their song "AEAO," which was initially introduced to American audiences through the NBA2K16 soundtrack. My brother used to play this game, so the song brought back some old memories, along with a sense of familiarity from hearing it so often on TikTok. Aside from AEAO, I didn't know much, but I noticed a lot of the Korean students around me knew the lyrics well, which was surprising to me. I think I underestimated their popularity in Korea.
ChungHa entered the stage, who I'm sure almost everyone knew. She's such an icon in Korea, and is often compared to BoA. Along with her newest song "EENIE MEENIE," she sang older songs such as "Roller Coaster," "Gotta Go," and "Snapping," which are also my favorite songs from her.
Jay Park had the audience going crazy, especially with his song "Mommae," which is always a crowd favorite (the song where he takes his shirt off lol). He was really good at hyping everyone up and working the crowd.
AKMU also took the stage, bringing a different sound to the concert with their laid-back, acoustic arrangements. They looked fantastic performing together, and I really enjoyed the change in vibe.
Around 7:30 p.m., we got super hungry, so we decided to leave our spot and head to the food trucks for a quick dinner. We were so scared we’d miss something big that we scarfed down our yakisobas and rushed back as soon as we realized the next artist was about to be announced. It turned out to be NewJeans, and we immediately regretted not waiting lol. We had to watch from the far left side of the stage, and although we were relatively close, our view wasn’t great. Their set list was shorter than expected, as they performed their newer songs, "How Sweet," "Bubblegum," as well as "ETA" and "New Jeans."
The celebrity performances ended with JANNABI, a rock band, who I unfortunately was not familiar with at all. However, I could see why they were the closing act, as some of their songs were really dramatic and powerful. The concert portion of the event finally ended at around 10pm, and all that was left were the cheers. The KU cheerleaders took the stage to lead the cheers, while the remaining students huddled in circles, dancing and chanting along. I guess all that practice at the cheering orientation back in March paid off.
The event officially ended a little after 11:00pm, and we were all completely spent, after jumping around for around 10 hours straight lol. When we made it to the main street in Anam, we saw students huddling together, still cheering and singing the KU alma mater. I was just so impressed at how patriotic and energetic these KU students were. This busy festival week really defined my experience here as a KU exchange student, and I was so glad to be lucky enough to be a part of it all.
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