The 2014 KAIST festival called Hakuna Matata was held by the KAIST event preparation committee, Imagination Effect, from September 24 to 26. Hakuna Matata, KAIST’s biggest festival throughout the annual calendar, was supposed to be held in the spring, but it was cancelled and postponed to the fall semester, in mourning of the Sewol ferry disaster back in April. Booths serving people food and drinks were set up around campus and on-stage performances gave students an alternative way to spend their evenings.

Various programs were prepared in front of the Lyu Keun-Chul Sports Complex (N3) so as to create an amusement park/fair-like atmosphere; these programs included a mechanical rodeo bull, making Hakuna Matata bracelets and a “Splash the Target” booth, where water balloons were dropped on a person’s head if his or her friend hit the target. These weren’t the only booths in front of the sports complex; various food stalls that offered a wider variety of snacks and cuisine on campus were open during the entire duration of the festival. A good portion of the food stalls, stalls that sold bubble tea and marble ice cream for example, were also placed in between the ChungMoonSoul Building (E16) and the Creative Learning Building (E11) so that they would be more accessible to students having just finished classes.

The festival was also one of the few times alcohol was allowed to be sold on campus, freeing students of the need to walk the so-called “endless” road all the way to Eoeun-dong to get a drink. Mosaic, a hoogie (a term that refers to students who enter KAIST in fall) student organization, offered unlimited amounts of alcohol and beer pong, a well-known drinking game in the western world, for just 15,000 Korean Won. Those who weren’t so keen to participate in such alcohol-induced frivolities were free to attend live on-stage displays that were held every night throughout the festival. Student bands such as Carpe Diem, Illusion, Ghutto’s, and Baobab staged their acts, which culminated in performances from renowned K-Pop bands such as Davichi, Norazo, and AOA (Ace of Angels).

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