{"id":42098,"date":"2025-07-06T00:56:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T00:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/42098\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T00:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T00:56:09","slug":"san-diego-county-fairs-first-k-pop-festival-brought-the-moves-to-the-fairs-final-weekend-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/42098\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego County Fair\u2019s first K-pop festival brought the moves to the fair\u2019s final weekend \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

About seven years ago, Chevy Rivera found herself wishing there was more of a K-pop scene in San Diego \u2014 and she wanted to do something about it.<\/p>\n

She would drive to Los Angeles for events, where there is a large K-pop community, but then returned home to San Diego, where she didn\u2019t find a similar network.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very lonely coming back from all those L.A. events to San Diego, and then not having any K-pop friends here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Rivera started a Facebook group for San Diegans interested in K-pop, and it quickly took off with about 200 members. She posted in the group, asking if people wanted to do K-pop dances together, and soon a dance team \u2014 CTRL.ATL.SD \u2014 was born.<\/p>\n

The team was one of about a dozen K-pop groups \u2014 including dancers, DJs and singers \u2014 to grace the stage at the inaugural K-Pop Festival at the San Diego County Fair on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"DancersDancers from the Aurea Dance Crew took the stage at the K-POP Festival at the San Diego County Fair on Saturday. (Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

The all-day event, which also featured vendors selling jewelry, clothes and food, brought in crowds of people who were enjoying the fair\u2019s final weekend. Sunday is the last day of the fair\u2019s summer run.<\/p>\n

For some of the K-pop groups, performing at the fair was an opportunity to showcase their talent and highlight the music genre, which has significantly grown in global popularity over the last decade.<\/p>\n

They also say that dancing is a great way to connect with friends and their community.<\/p>\n

\u201cDancing is a passion, but at the same time, it\u2019s \u2026 a good way to get together with everybody,\u201d said Prince Danganan, a member of the team Dis:Play, which performed on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\"DancersDancers from Dis:Play performed at the K-POP Festival at the San Diego County Fair on Saturday, July 5. \u00a0 (Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

K-pop originated in South Korea and blends together music genres such as pop, hip-hop, electronic and dance. Though the genre isn\u2019t new, the more recent success of bands like BTS helped bring K-pop to a more international audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt encompasses so many different genres, musically and dance wise,\u201d Rivera said. \u201cSo especially as a dancer or if you\u2019re in the dance world, I think that makes it very appealing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many K-pop songs have their own choreographed dance, and there were a few chances for dancers and festival attendees on Saturday to get in on the dance party during the RPDs, or random play dances. Similar to a flash mob, the RPD includes a mix of K-pop songs \u2014 so if people know the moves, they can join in.<\/p>\n

And while the majority of the performances featured modern music and choreography, there was also a nod to customary Korean culture with the San Diego Korean Pungmul Institute, which performed traditional song and dance.<\/p>\n

\"PerformersThe San Diego Korean Pungmul Institute performers opened up the K-POP Festival. (Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

Felicia Stapleton, an executive director of student services at the San Diego County Office of Education, attended the event with her family to support her niece\u2019s team, KASA Ignite, a dance group at San Diego State University.<\/p>\n

Stapleton\u2019s niece and daughter love the music \u2014 she says they\u2019ve been to countless concerts \u2014 but they have also learned about Korean culture and shared that with the family. Her niece and daughter both studied abroad in South Korea last summer, and her daughter is nearly fluent in the language.<\/p>\n

The knowledge about Korean culture, education system and family dynamics has opened up a whole new world for Stapleton\u2019s family, and she says she\u2019s grown to love K-pop music, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve learned more than I ever thought possible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About seven years ago, Chevy Rivera found herself wishing there was more of a K-pop scene in San…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":42099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,171,1370,8738,3549,3550,7264,1072,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-42098","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-north-county","14":"tag-san-diego","15":"tag-san-diego-county","16":"tag-sandiego","17":"tag-things-to-do","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114803571614758142","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}