The year 2020 marks the 30th World Folk Culture Festival (WFCF), which was held at the Global Campus Centennial Complex Conference Hall for three days from Oct. 27 to 29. The purpose of the WFCF is to celebrate the various languages and cultures from around the world, a special trait of HUFS, and it is held out of campus (at Gangnam St. in 2016, and Gwanghwamun Plaza in 2018) every two years on even years, but due to COVID-19 this year it was held on campus.

On the first day of the 2020 WFCF, a “special promotion” was held to introduce the participating academic societies, and the second day featured a live orchestra concert which was held online and offline simultaneously. Following social distance rules, the concert was held with minimum offline audience, and the HUFS WFCF YouTube channel was utilized to show the concert live to students, family, and relatives. The third day featured a special event for a gift lottery, story selection, and academic society pep rally. The 12 academic societies participating were Gulder (гулдер), Nabilela, Radoschi, Los Hobenes, Shandar, Sheluluraru, Oniropeya, Tanchen, Teptida, Twinbo, and Blamengcoro.

Yoon So-young (Class of ’18, Czech), chairperson of the organization committee for the 2020 WFCF, said that the performance was prepared with the wish to get emotionally closer with others through each nation’s culture and folklore during a time when physical distance is furthering all around the world due to COVID-19. In addition, she said that anyone could watch the WFCF through live broadcast online and that she hoped the performance could positively affect many people around the world.