사진 확대 Students are crowded at a university festival. Maekyung DB
Universities are competing to serve celebrities during the university festival. As hundreds of millions of won is spent on festival budgets alone, including the cost of recruiting singers, some students complain that celebrity-centered events do not fit the purpose of university festivals.
According to a Mail Business report on the 17th, major universities in downtown Seoul have the company’s “singer recruitment ability” as the main evaluation criterion in the bidding process. In a request for a service proposal for a festival event scheduled for the 26th, Dongguk University specified that “two idol S-level teams and one A-level team or more” are based on the cast. In addition, he added the condition of “currently active idol level” and mentioned specific idol group names such as Espa, Ive, and All Day Project.
An official from the festival agency said, “If the conditions for recruiting celebrities are not met, it may be a reason for bidding.” “The safety cost for managing the crowd of students who came to see the performance alone will be 40 million won to 50 million won, and 20 to 30 professional personnel will be put in,” he said.
Universities are forced to raise the cost of the festival. According to the bidding announcement on each university’s website, Kyung Hee University allocated 430 million won for the first semester of this year, although the festival budget was 280 million won for the first semester of 2024.
Some college students responded with self-deprecation, saying, “Tuition goes to celebrity pockets.” Han Min (25), a student at a four-year university in Seoul, said, “I think the high tuition we paid is used to recruit celebrities. I would rather invest in a quality educational environment with that money.”
Choi Hang-seop, a sociology professor at Kookmin University, said, “As individualism in the school intensifies, it is difficult for the student council, whose role has been reduced, to exert its power,” adding, “In order for the student council to prove its existence value, it becomes more immersed in festival planning, such as recruiting famous celebrities.”
[Reporter Cho Byung-yeon]