The beats of K-pop echoed across campus as fans packed the University Union for K-Pop Night, returning for the second time to Sacramento State. There were many activities available for guests to participate in, from bracelet making to watching live dance performances.
On Thursday, Oct. 2, the event was hosted in the University Union Ballroom from 7:30 p.m to 9:30 p.m. tables were set up for friendship bracelet making and photo card decorating, while complimentary popcorn, Korean snacks and water were offered to guests. There was also a photo booth station and a meet-and-greet tent set up to meet special guest, K-pop artist Yue.
Yue performed the song, “Burn With Love.” Yue is the main dancer and lead vocalist of the group Lapillus, a girl group that comprises six members: Chanty, Shana, Yue, Bessie, Seowon and Haeun.
Yue’s stage presence was electrifying, as the audience cheered and raved throughout her performance. Some crowd members were seen dancing along with her intense choreography.
Yue said she pursued K-pop because she enjoys being on stage and being able to interact with her fans.
“My favorite thing is that I can make music that I really like,” Yue said. “I can also meet with my fans and people around the world.”
Yue typically performs with her group, but at the event she performed solo, where she improvised and sung all the lines to, “Burn With Love.” According to Yue, the stage felt empty without her fellow members performing with her.
“That was a little bit hard for me, but I’m glad I came through,” Yue said. “It felt so amazing to be on stage, and the energy was over the top.”
Sasha Margulies, the Associated Students, Inc. marketing coordinator for student engagement outreach, helped make the event come together. Margulies said Unique and KSSU radio proposed the idea for K-pop night last year after campus surveys showed a strong interest in the genre.
“We have a great partnership with the Asian studies program here,” Margulies said.
She said she believed K-pop night was about cultural inclusion and making it accessible for anyone to attend. According to Margulies, ASI is working to expand the event to people outside of the university by bringing in community partnerships.
KP International Market, a local community partner, helped provide supplies and got Yue to perform at the event. They also supplied complimentary snacks and beverages for event attendees.
Krescendo is one of the student K-pop dance groups that performed at the event. They started around 2017-2018 at Sac State, according to team president Agatonu Nua, referred to as AJ, a third-year health science major. Krescendo has a YouTube channel with 3.73k subscribers, where they perform K-pop dance covers, host choreography workshops and do stage performances.
“One thing I love doing is choreographing my own routines, and I love hearing what everyone else wants to do,” Nua said. “It kind of gets us coordinated, and we all look so good doing it.”
Nua said he joined Krescendo in 2023 as a dancer and enjoys the team’s community aspect. To prepare for K-pop night, the group spent about three-and-a-half weeks practicing their performance. They plan to become regular performers for K-pop night. Krescendo has already performed for other events in the Bay Area and throughout Northern California.
After Krescendo’s performance AJ reflected on how global music influences K-pop’s evolution.
“K-pop has made a culture for themselves because you can see how they’ve pulled stuff from Black culture in everything,” Nua said, adding that Michael Jackson is one of his biggest inspirations when choreographing and interpreting K-pop dance styles.
Other student dance groups that performed at the event included EKHO and Newkidz. NewKidz won first place in March this year at the 2025 K-pop Dance Cover Competition in Cupertino, CA.
KSSU DJ KulHmongILLest and DJ Harrito were in charge of the music and mixed songs for the crowd to dance with, creating a loud atmosphere that set the tone for the night. Their original set playlist was five hours, but they had to cut it down to three hours, making final changes to their setlists until hours before the event..
“I believe we’ve played at least 90 to 100 songs within three hours, so that’s not a bad time,” DJ KulHmongILLest said. “In terms of the length, we just kept getting shorter and shorter, so it really came down to what songs we knew people would dance to and what songs we wanted to play.”
RELATED: State Hornet Spotlight: KSSU Promotions Director on his time at Sac State
DJ KulHmongILLest and DJ Harrito both had the opportunity to speak and meet with Yue for the first time during the event. They said they were not familiar with Lapillus’s music before, but after meeting Yue, they expressed support for her music.
“She’s super nice. We interacted backstage, and she’s genuinely a sweet person,” DJ Harrito said.
This is just the beginning for K-pop night, with performances from Yue, Krescendo, EKHO and Newkidz. The DJs’ upbeat mixes kept the crowd moving, as the dance floor filled up with students singing and dancing along to K-pop hits.
Organizers said the event’s turnout signals that K-pop night may soon become an annual event for Sac State’s community. Given that the first K-pop night was held in late September 2024 and this year’s in early October, students can expect it to return around fall 2026.
