The 2021 Seoklim Taeul Festival, KAIST’s annual spring festival, was held online from May 25 to 27. This was the second school-wide festival to be organized since the COVID-19 outbreak by Imagination Effect, the KAIST event preparation committee, following the 2020 KAIST-POSTECH Science War.

As was expected, the festival was unlike previous years, when food and exhibition booths were set up around campus and various clubs and invited singers staged performances. Along with having to comply with government health regulations, the sudden rise in COVID-19 cases on campus and in Daejeon in April placed further restrictions. Although performances were initially planned to be held in a non-face-to-face manner and the preliminary “MINI SUM” to select teams to perform in the “2021 SUM” was set to be held on April 30, these events were canceled and postponed for the Fall semester festival. As a consequence, Imagination Effect postponed the dates of the festival from May 11 to 25 in order to arrange an alternative.

This year’s Seoklim Taeul Festival consisted of three events: an Instagram escape room, “Kaicoin”, and a crossword and “Catchmind” event. For the escape room, participants found hidden clues in posts to move between Instagram accounts associated with locations within campus and find Nupjuki. Students participated in the “Catchmind” pictionary problems and the crosswords released every day throughout the duration of the festival by submitting their answers in a given Google form. The main event of the festival was the “Kaicoin”. Those who registered were invited to a KakaoTalk open chat room where they could make virtual investments in KAIST facilities. The winners of the events were awarded prizes. Imagination Effect also prepared macarons and fruit cups that were distributed from May 24 to 26. Long lines of students waiting to receive the refreshments were seen in front of Tae Wul Gwan (N13) each day.

The responses to the festival were overall positive, with many students praising the high quality of the events. Jisun Lee, an undergraduate student who participated in the events, commented, “It was a great event that was able to keep the school festival alive even during the pandemic. Although it was online and we couldn’t have most of the traditional offline events, Imagination Effect prepared entertaining and creative online events for students to enjoy.” Despite the limitations, the new format created for the festival was successful in bringing together the KAIST community for a few days of fun and entertainment.