By: Rut Labrada, staff writer 

Get ready to “Dance the Night Away,” Blazers. On Friday, April 17, VSU’s K-pop Club will be hosting their yearly busking event from 3-4 p.m., where the club members will perform a lineup of nine different K-pop dances at Converse Square. 

The event, which was initially planned to occur from 2-3:30 p.m., was moved back one hour due to scheduling issues. 

Busking, or street-performing, is a popular activity in South Korea, where young musicians, dancers, and aspiring K-pop idols take to the streets to showcase their talents. 

The K-pop club, which was founded on-campus in 2021 as the K-pop Dance Club, hosts a showcase or busking event every spring and fall semester to give the club members an opportunity to show their love for the genre and Korean culture. 

Club President Kyah Gomez explained the process that her and her fellow peers followed to prepare for the event. 

“Basically, over the course of 1.5-2 months, from the end of February to the beginning of April… we set weekly practices based on everybody’s availability,” she said. 

This year’s lineup of songs includes “Not Cute Anymore” by ILLIT, “Hands Up” by MEOVV, “Jump” by BLACKPINK and several other hit K-pop songs from the last few years. 

Gomez went on to explain that the practices intensified the week before the event to make sure that all members are prepared to showcase their skills to the best of their abilities. 

According to Gomez, the club members teach themselves the songs by using YouTube. 

“Usually there’s people who have already mirrored the dance practices made by the artists, or there’s people who have covered it and made a mirrored version,” she said. “We’ll slow the video down and go part-by-part… as time goes on, we get used to the different parts, and it gradually comes together.” 

For more information about the K-pop Club or their busking event, reach out to Kayah Gomez at kmgomez@valdosta.edu.