During my trip in Korea, I was lucky enough to win a ticket offered to foreigners for the Kpop Cover Dance Festival in Gangwon 2013, yeaaaah~!!! This big Kpop festival took place the 28th of September in Gangwon-do, in a town named Wonju, which is about an hour and forty minutes from Seoul in bus. The town was full of the event poster all the way to the Stadium where the final dance cover took place.
The artists announced for the event were some big Kpop Names like KARA or U-KISS (without Dongho) and others rising Kpop groups likes VIXX (without LEO), Dalshabet, NUEST, SPICA, A-JAX, BIGSTAR and APRINCE. All moved the stadium and I’m sure, lots of them didn’t fail to hypnotize new fans.
Among the audience, I was really surprise to see so many foreigners like me, from all over the world (Africa, America, Asia, Océania and even Europe). This was the proof once again that Kpop is now known a bit more everywhere. Korean press was really surprised too by foreigners knowledge about Kpop groups, songs, dances, etc. Specially, the biggest surprise for them came from African fans (lmao). Indeed, among Kpop Cover Dance contestants girls from Nigeria (who danced on SHINEE’s Ring Ding Dong ) were the sensations of the day and received louds cheering from the audience. I screamed a lot for them too. The 3 judges received lots of cheers too, especially Narsha from Brown Eyed Girls, beautiful and friendly as always.
The dance contest counted 14 teams and was subdivided in 5 rounds like this:
Round1: NEO from Philippines (EXO-MAMA + History), Seda from Turkey (B.A.P-Bad Man + One Shot),iDEZ girls from Nigeria (Shinee-Ring Ding Dong) (winners)
Round2: Inspired from Kazakhstan (EXO-History), American Royalty from U.S.A (Trouble Maker/Touble Maker + Miss A/Breathe) (winners), Crazy Freaks Dance Crew from India (2PM-Again&Again + Hands Up)
Round3: The Shadow from Vietnam (Shinee-Lucifer), Miky from Romania (Grils’Day-Expectation), MisoPop from Japan (Crayon Pop-Bar Bar Bar) (winners)
Round4: Home Made Asia from Hungary (BOA-Only One), SEI from Poland (Secret-Shy Boy), NewNation from Russia (4Minute-What’s Your Name?) (Winners)
Round5: A.O Crew from Australia (EXO-Wolf), I’GENERATION from Indonesia (SNSD-I Got A Boy) (winners)
All the cover dancers did a great job and shared with the public all their energy, dance skills, great synchronization and pleasure to be on the same stage as Kpop Stars in their beautiful outfits. And the rain, that day, couldn’t weaken the global good mood probably due to the loud and catchy cheers by soldiers. I promise, Korean soldiers are amazing during shows like that they improved the mood by cheering, dancing and singing ^^. After each round, one Kpop group took the stage and made everybody scream starting with BIGSTAR and APRINCE. Every time I heard a foreigner said “who are they, I don’t know this group” I couldn’t resist and gave him/her a Kpop “nugu groups” lesson lol !!! I felt really proud when people told me they will start to follow some of these groups after i told them who they are (look at BIGSTAR abs, cuteness in person with APRINCE or sexiness with VIXX) lol (hey readers, don’t judge me okay, i’m not biased lol). In fact it’s not because of me, but because all groups did so well live and didn’t fail to impress lot of people!!! Males in the audience were completely fired up by Dalshabet and Spica, while girls almost passed out after NUEST, A-JAX, VIXX and U-KISS performances. I can tell you it hurts to hear people scream around you like crazy lol. But i must confess, I screamed like crazy too when VIXX and U-KISS appeared (no, no, I’m not biased lol).
The final selection was quite difficult, because among all the winners only 3 teams were picked. The judged counted many criteria as dance skills of course, but also attitude and presence on stage, outfits etc. Finally, in number 3, the Russian team (NewNation) impressed the judge with their sexy and flexible remix of 4Minute (What’s your name?), while the American team (American Royalty) won the 2nd place with their medley Trouble Maker/Miss A (Trouble Maker/Breathe). This team surprised everyone with their entertaining, funny and cool performance. I should say that they were among my favorites too. The winning team of this Kpop Festival in Gangwon 2013 put all judges agree and me too. I was so happy for them because I cheers them since their selection for this contest. Congratulation to I-GENERATION from Indonesia !!!!! They impressed everyone with their great dance cover of SNSD (I got a boy) with their realism in outfits, hair styles and make-up and the more impressive was the mixed team (girls and boys). Watching them was a pretty nice moment for me, and I hope it will be the same for you too guys. KARA then put the stadium in fire with their new song like Damage Ladies or Step to close the event!!! Soldiers once again were amazing singing and dancing on KARA’s songs (lmao). After I said bye to some soldiers, I left the stadium with some good memories.
Kpop Festival in Gangwon 2013 was aired on SBS yesterday at 11pm KST !!!! If you missed it try to watch it when the show will be reaired. Watch each performance carefully and the winner of this year !!!! I hope you will enjoy the show like i did ;). See you guys for the next chapter of my adventures in Korea.
Pink8bubblegum.
