{"id":70788,"date":"2023-06-19T12:03:43","date_gmt":"2023-06-19T18:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=70788"},"modified":"2023-06-19T12:03:43","modified_gmt":"2023-06-19T18:03:43","slug":"bringing-the-k-pop-fandom-together-through-a-k-pop-up-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2023\/06\/19\/bringing-the-k-pop-fandom-together-through-a-k-pop-up-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing the K-pop fandom together through a K-pop-up Market"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mimyu, a K-pop dance group based in Edmonton performed at the Genesis Centre for the K-pop-up market on June 10, 2023. Mimyu performed dance covers from popular K-pop groups such as IVE, ATEEZ, and NEWJEANS. (Photo by Joanna Mendoza\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I<\/span>nside the Genesis Centre is a space dedicated to one of the biggest communities in the world, the Korean popular music \u2014 better known as the K-pop fandom.<\/p>\n

Enthusiasm, big smiles, and loud catchy music will welcome you as soon you enter one of the most anticipated K-pop events in Calgary, the K-pop-up Market.<\/p>\n

Inside the event are stalls of vendors selling K-pop merchandise such as albums, photocards, light sticks, stickers, and posters. Conversations of people talking about their favourite groups, concerts, and shows can also be heard across the room.<\/p>\n

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An attendee at the K-pop-up market is checking a stall with Anime and K-pop-inspired keychains, prints, and stickers. (Photo by Joanna Mendoza\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

K-pop fans from around Calgary gathered at the Genesis Centre to connect with fellow community members, share their passion for Korean pop music, and immerse themselves in the K-pop culture.<\/p>\n

One fan, Anna Ta, came to trade in some of her collection of photo cards of groups Seventeen and Enhyphen.<\/p>\n

“I just want to have fun too,” Ta said.<\/p>\n

Photo cards are selfies of K-pop artists that usually come as a freebie in a K-pop album. To most, photo cards are a prized possession \u2014 some even turn them into a hobby, such as trading.<\/p>\n

Trading is a common lingo in the K-pop community used to refer to K-pop fans swapping photo cards with each other.<\/p>\n

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Anna Ta, a K-pop fan, holds her scrapbook full of photo cards. Ta expressed her admiration for Seventeen and Enhyphen K-pop groups and came to the event to trade some of her cards.\u00a0(Photo by Joanna Mendoza\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Besides the market, a spot was reserved for the most anticipated part of the event, games and performances for K-pop fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur dance cover from Edmonton is going to come, their name is Mimyu Dance. They\u2019re going to come and do a panel,\u201d\u00a0 said Jeannie Kha, the event coordinator and vendor.<\/p>\n

The group delivered dance covers of popular K-pop songs, such as Halazia by ATEEZ and Hype Boy by NEW JEANS and hosted the game portion of the event.<\/p>\n

Fans participated in popular Korean games such as Cham, Cham, Cham, and random K-pop dance challenge, all with prizes to win.<\/p>\n

But behind all the fun, is a story of two passionate K-pop fans who longed to have events for their community.<\/p>\n

Besides Kha, another fellow vendor, Morgan Sawchuk, planned and initiated the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been doing K-pop events since 2018,\u201d said Sawchuk.<\/p>\n

The two met through a birthday event that Sawchuk posted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked her, \u2018Do you mind if I come over vendor for you?\u2019 And she said, \u2018Yeah, of course.\u2019 And then that\u2019s how all this happened,\u201d said Kha.<\/p>\n

The two started the Market last year and aspire to greater heights.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do want to expand larger,\u201d said Kha.<\/p>\n

Kha envisions something bigger than just an event.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Saskatoon, they have an actual festival with some celebrities coming. I think our goal is something like that.\u201d\u00a0To the two, this K-pop-up event is just baby steps toward providing activities and a sense of belonging to the K-pop fan community.<\/p>\n

“That’s the dream,” Sawchuk said. And we’re working towards it.”<\/p>\n

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Mimyu performed and hosted the games portion of the event.(Photo by Joanna Mendoza\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dive into the world of K-pop with the K-pop-up market: presenting all goods and things K-pop related! [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":826,"featured_media":70795,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"Deadline Assignment K-pop-up Market Story ","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,13],"tags":[110,1775],"class_list":{"0":"post-70788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-news","9":"tag-calgary","10":"tag-k-pop"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/826"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70788"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70841,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70788\/revisions\/70841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}