Summoning K-Pop fans nationwide, D’FESTA is making its United States debut at the Source OC in Buena Park, Calif. An immersive and interactive exhibition, D’FESTA LA presents a walk-through gallery of themed photos and videos of popular K-Pop groups, interactive activities and displays and a movie showcasing some iconic music performances. The multi-sensory experience gathers nine of the biggest groups in K-Pop: ENHYPEN, TXT, STRAY KIDS, NCT DREAM, NCT 127, TWICE, SEVENTEEN, BTS and NU’EST.
Developed by Dispatch, a K-Pop-focused news outlet in South Korea, D’FESTA was created in celebration of the company’s 10th anniversary in 2022. Previously held in South Korea, Japan and Vietnam, the D’FESTA experience is now being brought to the US to reach global audiences beyond Asia for the first time.
The festival’s opening ceremony welcomed Buena Park Mayor Susan Sonne and Vice Mayor Joyce Ahn, as well as the CEO of D’FESTA LA, Paul Yoo. With these special guests, the organizers of D’FESTA LA came together to cut the opening ribbon, saying that “K-Pop is not just one of the genres of music, but also, it’s a platform to create a global community.”
The Exhibition
Opening D’FESTA LA, the gallery exhibition brings viewers through a series of photo arrangements, presenting themed photoshoots of each of the nine featured D’FESTA groups. The concepts range from youthful paradises to garden chic, channeling the simultaneous playfulness and composure of each team. Each room of the photo exhibition brings a new ambiance as one room of bright and fun visuals transitions into a sophisticated black-and-white tone.
The mirrored memory room features collaged walls of the idols’ old snapshots and moments, bringing fans back to the past to reminisce about the groups’ journeys and achievements. Fans get to capture themselves in the mirrors amidst their favorite idols, allowing them to make memories of their own in this nostalgic hall.
The exhibition also incorporates artwork made by the artists themselves. Decorating their photos are personalized doodles and signatures from their fellow group members. To make the leading masterpieces of the gallery, each group collaborated to design their own hand-painted artwork, all nine of which were displayed alongside behind-the-scenes progress videos of the illustrations’ making.
The Experience
The virtual performance room features a visual surround system, immersing visitors in roaring performances of their favorite songs. Fans are transported onstage with their favorite groups and into a new visual world. Each song produces a different virtual environment that channels a unique musical mood. Visitors get to jump from floating among the clouds to walking the open ocean under glimmering stars.
The event offers itself as a prime photo opportunity, including various rooms where visitors can pose with life-sized cutouts or live images of their favorite artists. In collaboration with photo studio K PhotoLaVie, there are photo booths where one can snap photo strips decorated with idol-themed frames. Attendees can keep the photo strips themselves or even post them on the wall alongside those of their fellow fans.
Visitors can leave marks of their own on a message wall, where one can write a personalized message dedicated to their favorite artists. Accumulated throughout the exhibition’s duration, the fans’ messages are an artwork of their own for the D’FESTA groups to receive.
The Movie
To conclude the full experience, visitors finish with a movie shown at the Source OC’s CGV Cinemas theater. The 45-minute film features performances by the nine D’FESTA groups as each one goes all out in demonstrating their distinct sound and explosive energy.
Each group’s segment includes their performance from the same virtual room featured in the immersive experience, as well as a simulated concert stage on a colossal CGI venue, surrounded by a sea of animated fans. Attendees are welcome to sing and dance along to the songs, with their lightsticks waving passionately to the beat.
Though the festival was originally scheduled to open to the public on July 20, D’FESTA has since announced that “some parts of the exhibition do not align with the city’s code and are required to be fixed before we can open to the public.” As such, the official opening of the exhibition is postponed to the end of summer.
Still, the festival offers a brand new experience to K-Pop fans in the US. This unique festival offers the opportunity to international fans of the D’FESTA artists to engage with their favorite groups. As a place where fans can connect with others based on their interests, D’FESTA LA will close out the summer by sharing its community of music and culture.
Alaina Retodo is a 2024-2025 Arts & Entertainment Editor. They can be reached at aretodo@uci.edu.
Edited by June Min, Jaheem Conley and Jacob Ramos.
