2022 ESKARA Festival, Kingos United after Three Years
The University Festival is a large-scale Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) festival held in May where all Kingos become united through various cultural events. The festival came back after three years as the 2022 ESKARA Festival after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) curbs. It was managed by the student council Spring and was held for six days from May 2nd to 4th at the Natural Sciences Campus and from May 11th to 13th at the Humanities and Social Sciences Campus. The festival was made up of various programs and events such as stage performances, booths, and flea markets. Each day, Kingos showed their talents on stage as dance/hip-hop teams or in bands such as Piacere, Sungvengerce, and Twenteen. Artist performances took the stage afterward with over ten line up acts such as PSY, Holy Bang, and WINNER. A DJ party also flamboyantly decorated each final stage. The 2022 ESKARA Festival provided a Kingo zone to students, allowing all Kingos to enjoy the performances closer to the stage. While the Natural Sciences Campus set it up for all three days, the Humanities and Social Sciences Campus operated it on the last day only. Wrist bands were required to enter the Kingo zone. Kingos could receive them after verifying their SKKU membership through the KINGO M application or with student ID cards. In case of the Natural Sciences Campus, non-SKKU members could enter the zone after purchasing an entry ticket priced at ₩15,000. Food trucks, giant slides, and various booths surrounding each campus also let Kingos enjoy the festival even more. As with the Humanities and Social Sciences Campus, various department and college student councils set up pubs with unique concepts.
A Revival Experience of Campus Culture
The 2022 ESKARA Festival revived the campus culture after years of COVID-19 social distancing curbs. SKKU grabbed attention for being one of the front runners that restarted the university festival in South Korea. It was a fully offline event where Kingos could sing along to performances and take off their masks outdoors. Booths and food trucks had extremely long queues, and the school shuttle buses were fully seated in a trice. The footage of Kingos unitedly singing along to PSY’s performances became viral on social media. As such, the 2022 ESKARA Festival became an unforgettable rewarding memory for numerous Kingos. It was a precious experience, especially for students who enrolled after 2020 when offline events were banned. Shinn Ye-rim, a sophomore majoring in Culture and Technology, shared her thoughts about the event, saying, “Last year, I was very depressed to miss all the offline events. The 2022 ESKARA Festival was a big blessing to me.” Jung Ji-min, the 43rd leader of Kingo Cheerleader who showed powerful performances on the last day of each campus, said, “For the past three years, I kept wondering ‘when will I be able to meet Kingos on the stage?’ My dream has finally come true.”
