On July 19th, D’FESTA LA, an immersive and interactive K-pop experience, held a ribbon cutting event at The Source OC and offered an early look at what they have in store for K-pop fans prior to the official opening date in September.
Organized as several themed galleries, the exhibit features nine K-pop idol groups: NU’EST, BTS, SEVENTEEN, TWICE, NCT 127, NCT DREAM, Stray Kids, TOMORROW X TOGETHER (TXT), and ENHYPEN. Notably, the photos in the first two sections are arranged at random, and members of the same group are not placed together. The gallery opens with profile photos of each idol, ranging from full body shots to close up portraits. Most, but not all, of the photos are also printed with designs and signatures drawn on by the idols themselves — TWICE’s Jihyo’s portrait is covered in drawings of the word ‘죠,’ a play on her name in Korean, SEVENTEEN’s Hoshi’s is embellished with the word ‘호랑이,’ which means ‘tiger,’ and ENHYPEN’s Jungwon has himself portrayed as a cat, to name a few. Many photos also share words of congratulations for Dispatch, as the gallery is curated in celebration of the media site’s 10 year anniversary.
The next section is titled ‘Sensitivity’ and is paired with the following description: “Sensitivity speaks to the degree of light perception. But how deeply do we truly perceive our artists? In a quest to delve deeper into the soul of the artist, we’ve chosen to immortalize their presence in a single photograph, devoid of vibrant hues, captured in monumental monochrome. By stripping away the nonessentials, we are left with only the true essence of the artist. Between the gentle intensity of ‘black’ and the resolute brilliance of ‘white’ we aim to encapsulate the myriad beauties that lie within.” Per the description, the section features close-up monochrome portrait shot of the idols individually.
From there, attendees walk through a brightly lit hallway lined with small behind-the-scenes photos and mirrors and then enter the ‘Memory Room.’ In this area, drawings by each artist are on display with translated English placards next to each one. Artists each drew an image of their choice and wrote a message to congratulate Dispatch, and each artist section is also paired with a TV screen showing each group visiting D’FESTA in Korea.
This leads into the ‘Concept Photo’ area, where each group was given a themed photoshoot. One group photo and individual photos of each member are on display, along with a description of each theme. SEVENTEEN represents ‘A boy’s paradise,’ NCT DREAM portrays ‘The dream garden,’ Stray Kids portrays a ‘Time Turner’ concept, TOMORROW X TOGETHER (TXT) visualizes a concept of ‘The New world,’ the only girl group, TWICE, portrays the ‘Blooming Station,’ BTS represents ‘The blue stone = The Glacier,’ ENHYPEN youthfully show off the ‘Imaginary Playground,’ NCT 127 displays ‘A room of dreams,’ and NU’EST poses with a ‘White Desert’ theme.
The next section displays drawings by each group. All nine groups were given a large poster with Dispatch’s logo in the center, and they were each given artistic freedom to decorate the page. Some groups like NU’EST colored in the whole sheet, while others like BTS chose to just decorate a small area around the logo. After this is a room with large cardboard cutouts of each group in front of a backdrop — the perfect spot to take photos with your biases. The room is set up with benches in front of the cutouts, allowing fans to take a break or snap a photo with ease. Upon exiting this room, fans can head into the ‘Virtual Stage,’ a room surrounded by screens and mirrors that plays K-pop music and videos.
The rest of the gallery features activities that require additional payment. There are photo booths where fans can take photos while posing with their favorite members of any of the nine groups represented in the exhibit for $10 each. There is also a Gacha area where fans can insert a token and receive a random ball with two pins in it, though it was unclear if this requires an additional payment at the time of the preview event. The balls used to hold the pins can be returned in various bins representing each group, making for a fun way for fans to recycle the balls. This is next door to the gift shop, where fans can purchase file folders, shirts, pencil kits, and more, before heading outside and upstairs to CGV Cinemas for the last part of D’FESTA, the movie.
The movie also requires a separate ticket, but fans can enjoy a mini concert with performances by each group. They perform in order of who debuted most recently to the most senior group, and fans can enjoy original performances that were filmed specially for D’FESTA.
For fans eager to attend and memorialize the memories they create, it is important to note that none of the photo galleries permit photos (though photos were allowed for this preview event). Where photos are permitted, there are quite a few spots that rely on mirrors for you to take the perfect ‘selfie,’ and they may be hard to capture if there are too many attendees in there at once. Additionally, the narrow halls and rooms may make it difficult to truly stop and appreciate each photo. In most galleries, there is only one image of each idol (unless your bias is Haechan or Mark of NCT, as they are both present twice — once for NCT DREAM, and once for NCT 127), so the experience is catered for the multi-fan.
After two postponed openings due to various reasons such as safety, the exhibition is finally slated to open to the public on September 7th. Ticket information is available here.
