Incheon Global Campus (IGC) held their annual Music festival on Friday, Oct. 28 in-person this year following three years of virtual concerts during COVID-19. The event was held on the campus’ main soccer field alongside the Belgian Beir Fest hosted by Ghent University.

This year’s IGC Music Festival celebrated the campus’ ten-year anniversary and featured popular Korean artists, PH-1, Chungha, and BewhY as well as many student groups and other special guests. The event started at 5 p.m. with an opening performance by EMIS, a dance team from the State University of New York Korea (SUNY Korea) and ended much later in the evening with a performance by two members of the Korean Coast Guard Orchestra and BewhY.

Student groups from all of the schools on the Incheon Global Campus also performed, including dance teams and bands and solo artists. Additionally, there was a special performance by PERSONA, a band from Gachon University located in Seongnam, South Korea.

Many students, professors, families, and individuals from all around Incheon came to the festival, which garnered lots of excitement due to the popular Korean artists who also performed. During the sets of all three of the headlining artists, attendees cheered and held up signs on their phones showing their support. The crowd was so excited that security had to step in and ask people to move away from the barrier multiple times as it was starting to tip over.

The first headlining artist to perform for the night was PH-1, a Korean-American rapper who started his music career in South Korea following his college graduation in 2018. During his set, PH-1 interacted with many fans, coming in front of the stage to hug a few very supportive students and spray one of his water bottles over the crowd.

Chungha was the second headlining artists to perform at the festival and she “enraptured the crowd with her visuals and fan interactions throughout her set,” according to a student from the University of Utah Asia Campus (UAC). The artist performed her title track from her lasts release, “Sparkling,” along with a few older fan-favorites like “Snapping”. Chungha won the hearts of many people in the first few rows of the crowd as her and her dancers handed out candy during one of the songs. Chungha first became popular during her group debut in Produce 101’s first girl group I.O.I in 2016 and 2017 and continued on to debut as a solo artist later in 2017 after the groups contract was up and they disbanded.

The last performance of the night included a very special set from Korean rapper BewhY, who is currently doing his mandatory military service with the South Korean Coast Guard. Originally from Incheon, South Korea, the artist appeared in uniform after two members of the Korean Coast Guard Orchestra performed solo ballads. While the performances differed greatly in style, the attendees were nonetheless enraptured by all three artists. BewhY even came into the crowd in the middle of the set to sign an album for a very lucky fan.

One of the student performances later in the night featured NEMESIS, a dance team from George Mason University Korea (GMUK). One member of the team, Chrissy Perry, joined the group earlier this semester after auditioning and has had much experience with dance in the past, noting that she has danced off and on throughout her life, attended dance schools and competitions and tried many different styles of dance.

Perry described the teams’ preparations for the IGC Music Festival as “varied, depending on what needed working on,” and stated that the last week before the performance the group “practiced the performance nonstop”. While Perry had a solo dance performance in the team’s medley of songs, her favorite part of the routine was the group performances, “especially NCT’s “Kick It”. Many attendees cheered the group on and supported the dance teams intense and spectacular performance.

Vincent Choi, a Film and Media Arts Major at the UAC, performed with fellow members of SUNY’s hip-hop team, Rookground, early in the concert. Choi described practicing “not only the rapping but also some gestures and movements” with his fellow team members in preparation for the show. He further explained how this practice and discussion helped him “see [himself] performing in [his] mind” and furthered his excite for the performance.

Choi joined Rookground during the Fall 2021 semester and has performed previously at the GUYS Hip-hop Music Festival held earlier this year in May as well as on other occasions with teammates. He also looks forward to many new opportunities, stating that “If I can have an extra chance to perform, I’ll do it without hesitation.”

The IGC Foundation has held many music festivals in the past, the last in-person concert being in fall of 2019, and continued to host the event through ZOOM during COVID-19. The music festival celebrating the campus’ ten-year anniversary was a huge success and many students are looking forward to next year’s performances already.

Check out all of Songdo Chronicles photos from the 2022 IGC Music Festival here: https://songdochronicle.com/photojournalism/