Gachon University’s festival WE HIGHER! took place from September 23rd to 27th. Unlike last year, the day events were held at Freedom Plaza and Stardom Plaza by student clubs, colleges and departments. The evening events including food marketplace, pop star performances, broadcasting festival, and club party were all held at the stadium. What was paid special attention to by all the crews who planned and managed the festival was the slogan, ‘We are the one!’ To be true to the slogan, all pubs were gathered at the stadium, forming one large food marketplace.

Below is the schedule for WE HIGHER!

    Let’s review more closely. On the 23rd, the campaign for the former Comfort Women by the female students’ council ended with success, contributing donations to the organization called ‘heeum’ by selling bracelets engraved with ‘Blooming their hopes with you’. The Love through Candy event on the 25th sold candies tied with random people’s phone numbers. People bought each other’s candy and were connected. Even before the event started, it gained a lot of student attention and participation via Facebook. On the 26th, the TIME ATTACK EVENT was held at Stardom Plaza. It awarded a prize to the winner through various programs such as drinking cola quickly, eating a lot of hotdogs, competing smashing king, putting on frozen clothing quickly, filling a pace counter as much as possible etc.
  In the evening, the Gachon Festival took place at the stadium, giving chances for students who are talented in singing, dancing, magic, and comedy. With a tremendous amount of prize money, Gachon Festival earned great popularity. Pop stars such as A-Pink, and BLACK QUEEN came to celebrate the festival. Footprints of Gachon by the Center for Journalism and Communication went on from the 25th to the 27th at Freedom Plaza.
  For 3 days at Freedom Plaza, the Department of Child & Social Studies and the Department of Early Childhood Education sold churros and rice puffs ice-cream.   Also, the Gachon GBS broadcasting festival Blue Jeans showed a documentary and short film to introduce themselves, giving prizes to people by playing games. On the 27th, the last day of the festival, many students filled up the stadium. As it was stated as a hip-hop day, hip-hop musicians came to heat up the festival and then the club party started.
 Some students voiced their opinions after enjoying this year’s festival. Kae-sun-mi of the Department of English Language & Literature (12) said, “Compared to the last festival’s scattered-all-over-the-campus locations and slight lack of events, it was totally better this year since all the pubs were gathered at one place and more events and performances were planned. Bathroom use was quite uncomfortable though. The bathroom at dorm was so crowded as everybody has to use it.” Lee-yoon-a at the Department of Japanese Language & Literature (13) said, “As I expected, this year’s festival was very interesting. But when pop stars appeared, students couldn’t keep their order and it was disappointing.”
 Gachon University’s festival ended without mischance this year. The Autumn nights were quite chilly, but students’ passions were hot. For better or worse, students’ enthusiasm towards the festival has never changed. The Annual festival is a good opportunity for students to leave their burdens at the door and enjoy themselves. We expect next year’s festival also be filled with passionate youths.