This year, the seats for Busan National University of Education (BNUE) students will be officially allocated in the Daedong-Je of Pusan National University (PNU).

According to the report of “Channel PNU” on May 17th, BNUE students can attend the Daedong-Je Healing Concert through ticketing, which will be held for three days from May 28th to 30th. Recently, PNU’s General Students’ Association (GSA) opened the link to the Daedong-Je  Healing Concert ticketing for BNUE students. PNU Division of Student Affairs said it plans to formalize this to students through a later notice.

According to the Division of Student Affairs, the purpose of providing seats for BNUE students for the Daedong-Je Concert is to exchange ahead of the integration of both universities in 2027. PNU and BNUE signed the integration agreement on April 23rd and decided to complete the integration by 2027 (reported by “Channel PNU” on April 29th, 2024). PNU’s Division of Student Affairs said, “The decision was made to commemorate the announcement of the integration of PNU and BNUE. Former PNU President Cha Jeong-In requested this, and we reflected it.” It is understood that the GSA has accepted these Division of Student Affairs’ decisions.

As a result, BNUE students will be allocated a total of 900 seats, 300 seats each day at the Healing Concert. The 8,300 seats are distributed to PNU undergraduate students (6,000 seats), PNU graduate students (2,000 seats) and BNUE students (300 seats) each day. In terms of the number of seats allocated to all students, PNU's rate is 23% (6,000 seats out of 26,400  undergraduate students), and BNUE’s rate is 20% (300 seats out of the 1,500 students).

The ticketing schedule and areas assigned for PNU and BNUE students are different. Ticketing starts at 6pm for undergraduates, at 8pm for graduate students, and at 9pm for BNUE students. The ticketing dates are May 20th for the 3rd day of the concert, May 21st for the 2nd day, and May 22nd for the 1st day. The seats are divided into A, B, C, D, E and F, and BNUE students can only use the E area. Enrolled students of PNU can watch the Healing Concert in the A, B, D and F areas, and graduate students can only watch it in the C and E areas. The place of the concert and the exact seating arrangement have not been released yet.

Complaints about the attendance of BNUE students had spread on the PNU online anonymous community, “Everytime.” Even before the two universities are integrated, hasty decision was made to have other university students attend the festival for PNU students. Several posts caused a stir including “They are not yet integrated, so it does not make sense to give the same benefits as PNU students for PNU festivals.” Expectations are high for the invitation of famous idol singers as the budget for the Daedong-Je has doubled from last year (reported by “Channel PNU” on May 2nd, 2024).

It is estimated that the total number of seats at the Healing Concert has increased by 1.6 times compared to last year. Last year, Daedong-Je had 5,000 seats for all undergraduate and graduate students at PNU, but this tear, 8,000 seats are available excluding designated seats for BNUE students. The number of visitors is expected to increase further, including for those who did not get tickets.

Reporter Yoon Seo-Young

Translated by Eum Ji-Ho