Last week, Daejeon had the honor to be the host of UCLG's World Congress. The event turned out successfully as officials and citizens of cities from around the world came to Daejeon to celebrate the beauty of differences and agreed upon cooperating and heading towards a brighter future together.
Besides events hosted by the governing office of Daejeon, SolBridge as a representative of the city took the opportunity to exhibit its diversity to both the officials and citizens of the world. It started with the opening ceremony of Dean Joshua Park's speech and the MC's introduction of the festival.
Follow by the opening ceremony, South Korean students performed their act entitled “A march to the future”. With the appearance of traditional clothing and ecstatic choreography, they told the story of building a foundation and eliminating all negative influences winning through “han” (한), which means sadness, and “ul”(울), which means soul, for a better march to the future.
Different from South Korea, Russian students decide to make their performance revolve around the evolution of dance in their country. From the aristocracy period in the 17th century, they showed the Waltz, a traditional ball dance, and moved on to the Stilyagi, a controversial and popular culture for Russians in the 20-21st century. The performance not only brought much insight into Russia's culture but also lit up the stage with its joyous spirit.
A more distinctive act performed solely by a student from Bangladesh also caught the attention of many participants. The performer passionately demonstrated a Bengali folk dance performance including two folk songs from past legends that are still popular in Bangladesh. The dance is still performed in the country's rural areas on special occasions.
Vietnamese students' performance brought the patriotic and heroic spirit of their people to the city of Daejeon. With the assistance of traditional clothing, props, and dance choreography combined with modern music, this visual party relayed to its viewers the noble heritage that was built and upkeep throughout centuries.
Finally, to match the spirit of differences coming together as one, a flash mob made by representatives of many countries was performed. It successfully recapped the meaningful message of overcoming divergence and inequality. The event was commemorated in the evening hours but despite the cold, the heat that students of SolBridge presented was more than enough to warm up the atmosphere.
The event came to an end with SolBridge's 14th Student Council's prospectus of the effort put into this grand and amazing festival. As every single member of the distinctive community was invited onto the stage, they captured the precious moment of the night that they brought to Daejeon the power of unification.
