K-pop WaterBomb Ends with a Splash
On Saturday, Sept. 27, dance crew ElementX hosted its second annual K-pop WaterBomb from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Sunset Park.
Regardless of whether they listened to K-pop, people at this free event enjoyed K-pop cover performances, danced on stage during the random dance play, and played water games afterwards. Additionally, ElementX invited audience members to bring their own water guns and spray the performers with water.
Twenty-two out of the 27 registered groups performed. The performances ranged from soloists, duos, trios, and full groups. Every performer wore either red or green in their costumes to match the theme of the event.
“We performed last year as Cherubie. So we wanted to perform again to show improvement for people who were also there last year and for ourselves,” said Felix Wallace, a member of dance cover group Cherubie. “And we wanted to do another collab with our friend Leure.” The collaboration included the members of Cherubie and Leure combined into a separate group, Cheure.
Games
This year, WaterBomb added a new team-based activity to the event. From about 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., attendees could join any of the four games: sack race, tug of war, hungry hippos, and dodgeball.
Before the games began, everyone who wanted to play randomly grabbed a colored wristband from a bucket. Players chose either green or red, which determined what team the player was on. This meant that some performers played for a different color than the one that they wore.
Sack Race
The first game was the sack race. The two teams separated into their own single-file lines. The person at the start of each line donned a sack and jumped their way around cones. After completing the obstacle course, the sack was then relayed to the next person in line.
The first team to cross their line would be deemed the winner. Hopping their way to victory, the green team won with two people ahead.
“I didn’t play all of the games, but the ones that I did play were really fun,” Wallace said. “I played the beanbag jumping one [sack race]. That one was really hard. My calves were burning.”
Tug of War
For this game, each team went to a different side of the rope. Then, the host randomly selected two people from each team to compete against each other.
Under the middle of the rope lay a small cone that separated the two sides. If one person from either team crossed that boundary, the other team won the game.
The red team won this round, but not without a few player injuries from both sides. A few suffered from rope burn and small cuts. Luckily, this was anticipated, and there was an attendee with a first aid kit tending to the wounds.
“I did get hurt [playing] tug of war. I got a rope burn,” said Nico Salazar, an audience member. He reported that a bit of his skin was scraped off.
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Hungry Hippos
Hungry Hippos was the messiest out of the four games as it incorporated the most water.
A big, blue tarp lay on the grass with small, plastic balls on top of the center of it. A red bucket sat on each corner of the tarp. Both teams split off into two-person groups. Two groups from each team played each round, with every group occupying its own corner.
One person lay flat on their stomach to try and trap as many balls as they could under their bucket to bring back to their corner. Meanwhile, the other person grabbed the other by their ankles and pushed and pulled them across the tarp.
The game drenched those who were being pushed due to the water and soap that was poured on the tarp for less friction. The green team collected the most balls and won.
Dodgeball
For dodgeball, the green and red teams split off to separate sides. Small playground balls were lined up along the center of the playing field, with the boundary line marked by small cones.
After hearing “ready, set, go!” players from both sides tried to grab a ball and hit someone from the other side with it.
An “out” was determined by whether a player was hit or if a player threw a ball and it was caught. The game went on for a long time, and the red team won.
Star, a dance cover soloist who performed, said that dodgeball was his favorite because he felt cool when he was able to grab the ball another player threw at him. “I feel like there should be more games added, because I was having such a fun time,” Star said. “Then [the host] was like, ‘Hey, thank you for coming.’ I was like, ‘Oh, wait, we’re done?’”
#GetinMotion with ElementX
Miss out on this year’s WaterBomb? Fortunately, ElementX is planning to host the event next year after receiving positive feedback for this year’s.
Nico Salazar shared that the dance team, Astral, was his favorite part of the event. “They just had a really good performance; I really enjoyed it,” Salazar said. “And they sprayed us back. They pulled an Uno reverse card.”
The ElementX team and their leader, Alani Reifer, paid for the event out of pocket to keep the event free. To support ElementX, watch their dance covers on YouTube. And to keep up to date on new events, follow the dance crew on Instagram. They will post the photos from WaterBomb by the end of this month or early next month.
“I feel like it was so much fun. I do know some people here, so I felt comfortable. When I was performing, it was like, “Oh my gosh! Wait, people love me,” Star said. “I just really loved it–WaterBomb in general.”
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