A FESTIVAL at a York university shared both ancient and modern aspects of Korean culture - from traditional music, dance and calligraphy to K-pop.

Held annually in the UK since 2013, the Korea Day festival provides local and international communities with the opportunity to enjoy Korean culture and art.

Yor-K festival 2021, hosted by York St John University and in partnership with the Korean Cultural Centre UK, the City of Chuncheon and the Korea Tourism Organization London, brought a flavour of Korea to York for the day.

Dr Yeji Han, lecturer in Korean and linguistics at York St John University said: "We were delighted to be part of this exciting programme of events, especially since interest and demand for places on our Korean language course at has grown rapidly."

During the day, visitors were treated to a unique collection of outdoor, family-friendly Korean cultural activities in the historic Quad at York St John University.

These included a Korean traditional costume show, Korean traditional games, crafts, calligraphy and a selection of Korean food to try.

York Theatre Royal also set the stage to host the Yor-K: Korean Music Night.

The evening featured performances from the Shilla Ensemble and the String Trio, Korean traditional music reinterpreted on Western instruments and the first UK performance of ‘Strawberry Soda’ from the Korean Cultural Centre’s K-Pop lyric writing competition.

York St John University teaches a lively series of language courses, where Korean is one of two East Asian languages on offer. Students can study abroad and take part in exchange programmes, developing their cultural capital with a global, multilingual experience.