626 Bay Area: K-Poppalooza recap
The first Bay Area event of the 626 Night Market season brought many new, interactive projects to the Bay Area community - the 626Sampler, Cultural Performers Night, and another dance showcase: K-Poppalooza.
K-Poppalooza at the Bay Area is the third installment of a K-Pop dance project organized by Sahrang Han. This past event was the first time that 626 in the Bay Area featured an entire line-up of performers, which included six dance groups from around the Bay.
K-Pop (Korean pop music) has been around for over three decades, but has exponentially grown in popularity within the past few years - many people are familiar with BTS, who spoke at the UN and the White House; or BLACKPINK, the first K-Pop girl group to perform at Coachella in 2019 and to headline the festival in 2023. The 626 Night Market seeks to celebrate Korean pop culture by highlighting K-Pop at our events, through projects like K-Poppalooza.
The showcase was held in the western part of the night market’s food section - creating an entertainment hub for guests waiting in nearby lines for their dinner, and equalizing the live entertainment offerings with the main stage on the east side of the venue. The nearly 100 cover dancers arrived at the 626 Night Market in the mid-afternoon, going through one last rehearsal with the venue’s sound system before their performance.
Teams had been preparing for the showcase for just over two months, and most of the dancers are high school and college students from Davis, Berkeley, Manteca, and other nearby cities. But even their five-minute slots before the performance could fool any of the passing attendees - all performers conducted themselves as professionals, who were no strangers to the showcase set-up or pressure.
StarChrome powerfully kicked off the showcase with a Greek mythology-themed set, which featured “GODS,” the League of Legends World Championship anthem by girl group NewJeans.
EKHO performed two full covers, “Magnetic” by ILLIT and “Midas Touch” by Kiss of Life - two very recent releases that have different vibes, but are both infectious earworms.
ALLSTARZ also danced to NewJeans, throwing in a groovy remix of “ETA” that was a perfect allusion to summer.
A perfect continuation of the spring-to-summer vibes was DayBreak’s set, made up of TWS’s debut song “plot twist” and TWICE’s “One Spark” from their most recent comeback.
Off The Grid performed their unique combination of “Daechwita” and “Thunderous” by Agust D and Stray Kids (respectively), which embodied their confidence and cohesion.
Wrapping up the lineup, One Motion performed with white face masks that were tossed off the stage partway into their set, and ended the showcase portion with a snippet of the live version of BLACKPINK’s “Shut Down.”
After the showcase portion of the event, spectators were invited to take the stage themselves during the Random Dance Play - alternatively, Random Play Dance - activity. Random Plays are a common activity for K-Pop stans around the globe, and are a collection of K-Pop songs that each have their own choreography. When a familiar song comes on in the mix, then people who know the choreography perform the moves with other fans in the center of the dance area - once the song clip ends, dancers clear the “stage” and the cycle repeats. K-Poppalooza featured an hour-long RDP mix, giving the showcase performers and spectators over 50 chances to show off their moves on the K-Poppalooza stage.
K-Poppalooza was the final project to grace the Bay Area for this event weekend - wish you were there? You can catch all the team performances on the 626 Night Market’s YouTube channel in the next couple weeks, before our first Orange County event!
K-Poppalooza will return to 626 Night Market in Arcadia later this season, and the next Bay Area event will feature another dance showcase called HRZN. Follow us on Instagram for updates on these projects, and more!
