On May 16, the CALS(College of Agriculture and Life Sciences) held its 2023 spring festival, "Cheongnong Film Festival," with the theme of film. To find out more about the Cheongnong Film Festival, we interviewed Kang Taehyun, a 22nd-year member of the CALS student council who organized the festival, and Na Young, a 22nd-year student of the department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development who participated in the festival.

The background of the Cheongnong Film Festival is the revitalization of the OTT industry and the easing of covid-19 prevention guidelines. "The development of OTT industries such as Netflix has increased the number of people watching movies, and the easing of prevention guidelines has revitalized movie theaters and increased interest in movies," said Kang Taehyun. At the Cheongnong Film Festival, booths were held for the movies 'Honest Candidate', 'Aladdin', 'Top Gun', and 'Mission Impossible', and in addition, an award ceremony booth was held like a film festival.

The "Honest Candidate Booth" was based on the movie "The Honest Candidate," in which a congressional candidate becomes unable to tell a lie. In this booth, a game using a polygraph was played. It was a unique way to engage students where two people had to place their hands on a polygraph and try to get the other person to lie without lying themselves.

Next, the "Aladdin Booth" operated a tarot for love fortune based on the movie "Aladdin," which creates a fantastic experience. "We thought that the tarot could easily become boring, so we had cute mascot of CALS, 'Nongnongi' perform the tarot," said Kang Taehyun, the organizer. The Aladdin booth attracted the most students on the day of the festival because it was easy and fun to enjoy.

There were also booths themed on the action movies Top Gun and Mission Impossible. At the 'Top Gun' booth, participants could make paper airplanes and fly them far away, while at the 'Mission Impossible' booth, they could take quizzes while going through thrilling missions. Participants who won the Top Gun booth received a small prize, and those who completed the mission at the Mission Impossible booth received a thrilling VR experience.
Finally, the "Award Booth", which was created to increase participation, gave out free slushies to students on the day of the festival, which was a very hot day. Participants who enjoyed three or more festival booths also received a prize ticket, giving them an incentive to actively enjoy the festival.

The CALS student council, which organized the festival, went through a process of selecting booths with movies and experiences that students would enjoy and assigning the suitable people to each booth. In particular, they spent a lot of time thinking about the way the booths were organized and whether they were suitable for the purpose of the festival.

Meanwhile, the festival planning process was not smooth. "Compared to other colleges' festivals, the support budget was small," said Kang Taehyun. "I think the most important thing about the festival is people's interest and participation, but I was disappointed that the publicity was not as good as I thought," he said, adding that he spent a lot of time thinking about how to promote it.

Finally, Kang Taehyun, the organizer, expressed his gratitude to the students who came to the festival, saying, "I would like to thank the people who enjoyed the festival despite the heat." He also expressed his gratitude to the members of the CALS student council who planned the festival together, saying, "I would like to tell the members that they had a lot of trouble and worked hard." He concluded the interview by saying that he hopes for a lot of interest and participation in the fall festival.

Na Young got involved in the festival after hearing about it through social media. The festival was held at the 'Nongshik Square', the square in front of the restaurant of CALS, so she was able to participate comfortably because it was close to her geographically, and she said that her acquaintance performed at the festival, so she participated in the festival with anticipation.

"I was impressed by the fact that the festival was organized by students," said Na Young. "The award booth was interesting, and I liked the fact that they provided free slushies to quench the students' thirst in the hot weather." "I thought the movie-themed booths were fun and fitting for the name of the festival, which is the Cheongnong Film Festival," she said.

On the other hand, she said that she was disappointed that there were no tents for watching or waiting for performances in hot weather, so he had to face the strong sun. As the festival was held in May, she said that it would have been better if it was held later in the day so that it wasn't so hot. She also wished that there were more food trucks so that there were more options.

Finally, Na Young concluded the interview by saying, "I would like to thank you for organizing the festival for the students during the busy season and thank you for your hard work," and expressed her hope for more fun festivals in the future.