Rain or shine, university festivals are one of the biggest highlights of attending school in Korea. There’s the allure of eating tasty food with your peers, bonding with fellow clubmates, or even meeting someone completely new from a different department. But perhaps one of the biggest draws of university festivals are the musical acts that come to perform.
From K-Pop idols to soloists, they turn these campuses into a full-blown concert. And sometimes the festival planning association even employs well-known celebrities as emcees. RIIZE were one of the many acts invited to perform during Korea’s festival season. The SM Entertainment boy group received the opportunity to perform at Kyunghee and Yonsei University. This would mark their first experience as university festival performers, and seeing the way they dominated the stage, it surely won’t be their last.
Here are just a few reasons why they’re perfect for the university festival stage.
1. Visuals That Match The College Campus
RIIZE are extremely charismatic on stage and carry the ability to sway the hearts of everyone in the audience. Although they are cloaked in this intense aura of cool, their appearance still manages to carry an innocence that speaks to their youthful and boyish charms. If they weren’t idols, the RIIZE members could have been handsome, yet diligent students found hanging out with friends or studying across campus. The sight of them alone brings out a similar type of energy that can only be found on a university campus.
2. Hype Setlist That Gets Everyone Dancing
While they could have been a typical, next door college student, the fact that they’re idols remains true. And part of what makes them such a perfect fit for university festivals is their discography. Everything from ‘Love 119’ to their most recently released ‘Impossible’ is filled with an electrifying energy that gets your whole body moving all day long. Regardless of if their set time is as small as 10 minutes to half an hour to more, their songs leave an impact that will have even non-fans humming along to its melody. It’s certainly an advantage for RIIZE to have multiple chart-topping hits in their arsenal that the entire student body can enjoy.
3. Perfect Skills For Live Performances
On top of everything, they are trained professionals in both dance and the vocal department. Even in the midst of performing such upbeat and intensive choreography, RIIZE remain in their element and confidently show that they’re singers first and foremost. More than perfectly hitting every note, they manage to insert small ad-libs and phrases in order to hype the crowd even further. Being able to do some form of crowd work is a skill that not everyone has managed to develop. However, RIIZE shows that they can go off script and bring more than 100% to the stage – all while doing it completely live.
Although their university festival appearances were few, the boy group has certainly left their mark. As long as their schedules allow, fans are confident that RIIZE could make their way to even more university festivals for the fall semester.
Did you watch RIIZE’s university festival performances? What did you think of them?