Photocard exchanges, language lessons, and dance lessons. Those are just a few of the hallmarks of the K-Pop community and it's made its way to Idaho.
Idaho is known for its rural landscapes, country music and western traditions. But the K-Pop community, fans of the now global Korean pop genre, is making inroads in the state.
“We’ve seen people who are grandmas bringing their grandchildren and grandmas are more excited than the grandchildren to be there. And kids bringing their parents, the kids are excited, people of all races that are excited to be there, all genders,” said Madison Park, the Vice President of Idaho K-Pop Stans.
She said the community grew on Facebook as K-Pop lovers united to host fun events.
“We kind of felt like that was missing here in Idaho. Lots of other places like LA and Seattle, always have these events and we wanted to bring it here.”
Since then, the group has held monthly events with hundreds of attendees and is hosting the first Idaho Korean Festival this weekend.
“I would love for everyone to leave with admiration of Korean culture and learn something new that they didn't know and hopefully want to join us again for next year.”
The festival will take place this Saturday at Julia Davis Park in Boise, starting at 10 a.m.
The group also hosts cup sleeve events.
“People will go to a cafe and to celebrate the K-Pop idols birthday and you know, they get the cup sleeve. They usually get like little like stickers and things like that. Photocards to go with their order.”
Other activities include random play dances (RPD), where members play snippets of K-pop songs and dance to the choreography. The most recent RPD took place at the Boise Mall.
“It was super cool to see everyone in the mall watching and they were like, oh, what is this?”
They also host formal dance classes at Studio Unlimited.
“People can come at any skill level and just feel free to dance and not stress about whether it's going to be perfect or not.”
For more laid-back activities, the group watches movies and makes crafts.
“We'll usually have some things to make bracelets and things like that and ask people to kind of do like a potluck, bring some food, we'll play K-Pop music and just give everyone a chance to make some friends and talk about K-pop.”
The group has also served the local community.
“In Korea, a lot of K-pop fans will actually fundraise in the names of K-Pop groups and then donate in the name of K-pop groups.”
The group successfully raised money for the West Valley Humane Society in Boise.
“I'm going to raise money for them in the name of BTS and let's see how much we can donate. And people were very generous.”
She said people interested in joining can join their Facebook and Instagram community to keep up with upcoming events.
