Students, families and friends came to the Fusion Asian Festival on March 3.
The festival is a multicultural music and dance event celebrating 14 different countries across Asia. Students put in hundreds of hours over the past three months to prepare to represent their cultures.
Shiegrid Hernandez, Administrative Programs Coordinator for the Multicultural Student Services office said, “We can’t put it together if the students are not willing to, you know to put in the work, and so, we’re just here to support them.”
The Multicultural Student Services Office was approached by Vivian Hojae Lee, co-president of the BYU Korean Student Association. She and several others worked with the MSS Office to put the event together.
“I definitely do believe all the time was worth it, seeing the turn out, it’s amazing,” Lee said. “I did not expect that many people.”
As the Wilkinson Center East Ballroom filled, more and more chairs were added to the room. However, the chairs were quickly filled, leaving the festival standing room only.
“I feel like there’s 10 times more people than we first expected,” Lee said. “I think we first expected 200 people, but obviously it exceeded that.”
The wall dividing the ballroom was opened up, and the balcony above the ballroom was made available for attendees to view the performances.
Moises Aguirre, director of the Multicultural Student Services Office, talked about the process of opening the room up for more attendees.
“We called the building managers and people that we know have access to open other areas to accommodate more students, and in less than 10 minutes they were here just to open those areas and let more students come in and enjoy of this show,” he said.
The evening featured 13 different performances and a fashion show. Each of the performances demonstrated a different facet of Asian culture, from traditional to contemporary. These students wowed the audiences with their skills, inspiring students to share their own unique voice with others.
Kahea Clark, assistant director of the Multicultural Student Services Office, said “How grateful we are that these students get that opportunity and can use their voice to make a lot of great change.”
