I’ll say it — I’m not a K-pop fan. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against the genre, but it’s not something I know all too much (read: anything) about. But K-pop wasn’t why I found myself at the Clocktower for Spirit of Korea (SOK) Friday. It wasn’t the free Seoul Taco either, though that certainly was a draw.

Isabella Neubauer | Student Life

Students perform a dance in the annual show Spirit of Korea.

SOK is presented by the Korean Students Association and the Korean International Student Society (KISS). “It’s just an influx of new Korean music,” sophomore Mars Kim, one of the event’s hosts, said of SOK 2019’s theme: New Wave. That new wave was featured on the SOK T-shirts.

Though the performances didn’t start until around 6:30, students started to congregate around the Clocktower a little after 5 p.m. Even before that, dance groups and bands ran through their sets onstage, drawing a small crowd as they checked their blocking one last time. I arrived at 5:30, and the line for food was already past Ursa’s. Though it was long, the line moved fast — before long, I had my food (rice, kimchi, steak, pork and sushi) and sat down to wait for the show to start.

By the time the hosts, Mars and Andrew, came onstage, so many people had clustered around the stage that most of the Clocktower space became standing-room-only. Though some of those people gradually filtered out as the night became uncomfortably cold, the area remained packed.

And with that, the first act of the night, KISS Band, came onstage. Their performance set the tone for the night — an energetic crowd, good music and an almost tangible sense of emotion in the performance that persisted though I don’t speak the language. And that’s why I come to SOK, really. It’s not for the K-pop dancing, and only a little bit of it is to cheer on my friends and classmates. SOK is a celebration of Korean culture, from rock and rap bands to traditional percussion groups like Standing Drums and Samulnori to choreographed taekwondo (complete with performers breaking boards onstage) to K-pop dance. Sometimes, the performances were collaborations, like Gena & Ty ft. Rob Apollo.

Open Dance’s performance almost filled the stage – there were so many dancers, all wearing the same white T-shirt and jeans, that I didn’t see how they had room to dance. And yet they performed to three songs, with members running on and off stage for different parts in an impressively-coordinated display. But the most striking part to me was the huge smiles on most everyone’s faces during the whole performance.

It’s that kind of energy that keeps me coming back to SOK, that sense of pure joy. And that’s why I’ll find myself freezing outside on another April night next year for SOK 2020.

This year’s Spirit of Korea performers, not in order, were: KISS Band, STND Glass Band, Samulnori, 1 Million Mashup, Open Dance, STND Glass, Standing Drums, Sunmi, Taekwondo, Seventeen, Med School Open Dance, Gena & Ty ft. Rob Apollo, GOT7, iKON and Jennie.