Gimje Horizon Festival

🗓️ 2026.10.01 ~ 2026.10.05

The following information regarding food at the festival grounds is based on the previous year’s (2025) festival; information for the 2026 festival is currently being updated.

Set against the vast golden fields of Gimje, the Gimje Horizon Festival is the only honorary representative cultural tourism festival in Korea, as designated by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, to be built around traditional farming culture. Its main stage is Byeokgolje, the oldest and largest irrigation facility in the country, and the festival draws on this heritage to offer visitors a full immersion in rural life: cooking rice on a traditional hearth, catching grasshoppers, harvesting rice, and threshing grain by hand. The program also includes the nation’s first Presidential Cup National Nongak (farmers’ music) Competition, along with time-honored folk events such as the Twin Dragon Play, rooted in the legend of Byeokgolje, and the Ipseok Tug-of-War, a ritual prayer for a bountiful harvest—both of which welcome on-site participation.

Main Programs

Presidential Cup Horizon National Nongak Competition

The only Presidential Cup competition among national festival competitions, where nongak teams representing their regions from across the country come together to compete. Visitors can feel the essence of traditional Korean farmers’ music in a single venue, as the country’s finest performers of this vibrant folk tradition vie for the highest honor.

Byeokgolje Legend Twin Dragon Play

A representative traditional event and cultural performance based on the twin dragon legend associated with Byeokgolje, the very stage on which the Gimje Horizon Festival unfolds. The play features situational play performances with the participation of residents from Buryang-myeon, Gimje-si, lending the retelling of the ancient story a distinct local authenticity.

Bountiful Harvest Prayer Ipseok Tug-of-War

A representative traditional event and cultural performance operated with the participation of residents from Gyowol-dong, Gimje-si. Based on a traditional folk game performed to pray for a bountiful harvest on the first full moon of the lunar year, it invites festival-goers to join the pull and take part in the collective wish for abundance.

Experience Programs

Land Art Zipline Experience

A unique leisure sports experience crossing over the large-scale land art (rice paddy experience center) created at Byeokgolje. It pairs the thrill of ziplining with sweeping views of the festival’s iconic rice paddy artworks.

Cooking Rice in a Traditional Hearth

A hands-on experience where families cook cauldron rice in a small traditional hearth and sit down to eat it together. It offers a genuine taste of everyday farming life, equal parts educational and heartwarming.

Horizon Kite Flying

The largest kite-flying program in the country, in which various kites are flown simultaneously across the open field. The sight of countless kites rising into the sky captures the festival’s expansive, horizon-wide spirit.

Side Programs

LED Land Art

At nightfall, the land art—which depicts Ssarikong-i, the festival’s character, wearing Hanbok—becomes a glowing landscape, illuminated with lighting that matches the festival’s theme. It welcomes visitors with the abundance and warmth of the horizon after dark.

Ssarikong-i Bale Art Exhibition

A bale art exhibition that conveys the festival’s sensibility, displaying a range of drawings from the Ssarikong-i character to popular characters. The straw-bale artworks add a rustic, playful character to the festival grounds.

Horizon Final Fantasy Show

The highlight of the festival night: a grand media show combining lasers, lighting, fireworks, and multimedia. It serves as a spectacular closing attraction that brings each day of the festival to a memorable end.

Food and Other Information

• Regional Specialized Food Booths: Representative foods from Gimje’s towns, townships, and villages, along with dishes from top local restaurants selected through the ‘Matbo-jago Competition’—an initiative to identify Gimje’s best restaurants and eradicate poor-quality food at regional festivals.
• Horizon Majung Street: Snack booths catering to the younger generation, offering a lively street-food experience on the festival grounds.
• Agricultural and Special Products Direct Market: A market selling raw agricultural, livestock, and fishery products, processed goods, and special products produced in Gimje, allowing visitors to take home a taste of the region.

📍 Address: 442 Byeokgolje-ro, Buryang-myeon, Gimje-si, Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province

🛏️ Accommodation near the event

💰 Fee: Free (Some programs have a fee)

📞 Inquiry: 063-540-3172

⭐️ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gimjehorizonfestival/

🖥️ Website: http://festival.gimje.go.kr/

Gimje, a city in North Jeolla Province, sits at the center of one of South Korea’s main rice-producing regions. The Gimje Plain, one of the country’s largest areas of continuous farmland, has long been cultivated through irrigation systems and coordinated village labor. The plain’s broad, flat fields give the city its nickname—often rendered as the “granary of Korea”—and provide the setting for the annual Horizon Festival.

Farming traditions are still visible in Gimje. Local events preserve practices such as juldarigi, a tug-of-war game, and the use of durumi, traditional weeding tools. Rice-planting and harvest songs are performed during the farming calendar, and the Dongjin River continues to supply water to the surrounding fields. In autumn, the ripened rice turns the plain golden, a seasonal change that attracts visitors and photographers.

The city also maintains physical evidence of its agricultural history. Irrigation ponds, dikes, and historical farming implements are displayed at local museums and heritage sites, offering a concrete record of how the region adapted to its environment. For visitors, Gimje provides an unpolished view of rural life in Korea: agriculture sets the rhythm of daily work, and the landscape itself reflects that labor.

Gyeryong Military Culture Festival

🗓️ 2026.10.01 ~ 2026.10.05

The following festival details are from the previous year’s (2025) festival; details for the 2026 festival are currently being updated.

“Gyeryong’s Dream, K-Military Culture Soaring to the World!” The Gyeryong Military Culture Festival will take place from Sept. 17 (Wed) to Sept. 21 (Sun) at the Gyeryongdae runway and throughout the downtown area. The 2025 Gyeryong Military Culture Festival, a luxury festival of the Republic of Korea, plans to raise the status of military culture and present various contents that all generations can enjoy together through diverse performance programs—such as the opening celebration performance, genre-specific Military Culture Festa concerts (Rock, Trot, K-POP), invited military band and honor guard performances, and road parades—as well as various experience side events including the Extreme Special Experience Hall. In particular, this year, a ‘Wellness Life Special Exhibition Hall’ will be operated to showcase new festival content that fuses military culture with lifestyle.

The festival’s appeal lies in its range: large-scale performances sit alongside hands-on military experiences, and the genre-specific concerts are programmed so that visitors of different generations will each find a stage to enjoy. The Wellness Life Special Exhibition Hall is the most distinctive addition this year, signaling an effort to extend military culture beyond ceremonial displays and into everyday life. For those seeking deeper engagement, the overnight camp and training programs offer a level of immersion that a single-day visit cannot match.

Official Events

Opening ceremony and celebration performances.

Exhibition Events

Operation of the Wellness Life Special Exhibition Hall, Extreme Special Experience Hall, etc.

Performance Events

Military Culture Festa genre-specific concerts (Rock, Trot, K-POP), 3-service military bands and honor guards, busking performances, citizen arts group performances, road parades, etc.

Experience Events

2-day 1-night “Our Family” Barracks Camp, Yong-doryeong Circular Train, survival combat experience, barracks training experience, etc.

Side Events

Imagination Festival, Gyeryong Pat-geori Festival, Global Culture Competition, etc.

📍 Address: Jeongjang-ri, Sindoan-myeon, Gyeryong-si, Chungcheongnam-do

🛏️ Accommodations near the event

💰 Fee: Free

📞 Inquiry: 042-840-2621~4

🖥️ Website: www.gcfct.org

Gyeryong-si is known in South Korea as a military city. It contains Gyeryongdae, the headquarters compound for the Republic of Korea Army, Navy, and Air Force. The central commands of all three branches are located here, which is uncommon and gives the city a distinct administrative function.

The military presence affects local employment, housing, and public services. In recent years, Gyeryong-si has also developed a military-themed tourism sector. Museums and monuments explain the history and structure of the ROK armed forces. Experiential programs let civilians handle equipment, observe training methods, and learn about base life.

The annual Gyeryong Military Culture Festival is part of this effort. It features demonstrations, exhibitions, and participatory activities designed for visitors. The festival draws domestic tourists as well as international visitors interested in Korea’s defense institutions.

Dobong Hangeul Festival

🗓️ 2026.09.30 ~ 2026.10.12

Hangeul is a writing system born from considering the human heart, connecting the thoughts and intentions of one another. Hangeul conveyed the hearts of the people who struggled to express their meanings and served as a hope that firmly protected the spirit of our nation even amidst a dark history. Dobong-gu, Seoul, is a place imbued with the breath of historical figures who created, protected, and enjoyed Hangeul—from Princess Jeongui, the daughter of King Sejong, to Kansong Jeon Hyeong-pil and Widang Jeong In-bo, who protected our language and script during the Japanese colonial period, and the poet Kim Su-young, who sang of freedom in Hangeul.

The year 2026 marks the 580th anniversary of the proclamation of Hunminjeongeum and the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Hangeul Day and the creation of Hunmaengjeongeum, the script for the visually impaired. In recognition of these milestones, the Dobong Cultural Center is hosting the 15th Dobong Hangeul Festival, “Piercing Through the Darkness, Connecting Hearts.” The festival reflects on the heart toward people contained in Hangeul and the intentions of those who protected it in the darkness of the era. It aims to connect the history of creating, protecting, and enjoying Hangeul with the figures and cultural resources of Dobong, offering a space where visitors can share in that history through exhibitions, performances, and experiences.

Main Programs

• Princess Jeongui Outing — a program drawing on the connection between Princess Jeongui, King Sejong’s daughter, and the Dobong area.
• Hangeul Calligraphy Performance Art — a live performance format that showcases the artistic possibilities of Hangeul as a writing system.

Side Programs

• Exhibition Yard — chronological exhibition, special exhibition, poem and painting exhibition, and more
• Performance Yard — orchestra, culture sharing performance group, and more

Consumer Participation Programs

• Experience and Play Yard — making Braille keyrings, traditional games, and more

Other Contents

• 20th Dobong Writing and Drawing Contest
• Joseon Royal Court Cultural Experience
• And more

📍 Address: 16 Haedeung-ro 32ga-gil, Dobong-gu, Seoul (Banghak-dong)

🛏️ Accommodations near the event

💰 Fee: Free

📞 Inquiry: 02-905-4026

🖥️ Homepage: https://www.dobong.or.kr/main/main.php?categoryid=02&menuid=02&groupid=01

Hangeul and the Dobong Hangeul Festival

Hangeul is the alphabet used to write Korean. It was introduced in 1443 by King Sejong the Great and promulgated in 1446 under the title Hunminjeongeum, “The Proper Sounds for Instructing the People.” The project was intended to provide a practical writing system for Koreans, who at the time had to rely on Classical Chinese for written communication. While Chinese characters remained the preserve of educated elites, Hangeul was designed to be learnable by the general population.

The original set of 28 letters was later reduced to the 24 used today. The design reflects principles of articulation and sound. Consonants are based on the shape of the speech organs used to produce them; for example, the letter for a velar sound is drawn to suggest the back of the tongue blocking the throat. Vowels are composed from straight lines and dots representing heaven, earth, and the human figure. This makes the script easy to describe and reason about, and it has been of continuing interest to linguists.

Hangeul is also significant in Korean cultural history. It has been used for centuries in poetry, fiction, and public documents, and it has survived periods in which its use was discouraged. In South Korea, its creation is commemorated each year on Hangeul Day, and the 580th anniversary is being marked in 2026.

The Dobong Hangeul Festival is one of the events held for this occasion. It includes workshops on calligraphy and letter design, performances that use Hangeul in music and theatre, and displays of historical and contemporary printed materials. The festival is organized around the script itself—how it was made, how it works, and how it continues to be used in daily life.

Yangju Autumn Globe Amaranth Festival

🗓️ 2026.09.26 ~ 2026.10.04

Globe amaranths in seven colors, each with its own flower language and charm, will fill Yangju Nari Farm from September 18 together with more than 20 species of autumn flowers. The seemingly endless flower fields create a space where the splendid atmosphere of autumn can be fully felt. Under the slogan “Yangju’s Autumn Dyed in Globe Amaranth,” the 2026 Yangju Globe Amaranth Autumn Festa will be held during the weekends from September 26 to October 4.

During the festival period, the farm offers flower field viewing along with programs designed for capturing moments with family and partners and for making memories with friends. Performances, hands-on experiences, and photo zones are set up throughout the farm, so visitors of all ages have something to enjoy. The festival program also includes cultural and art performances, specially designed spaces, and experience and market booths.

Yangju Nari Farm is located in the center of northern Gyeonggi Province and is reachable within approximately one hour from anywhere in the metropolitan area, which makes it one of the top spots for autumn outings.

Planned performances

• Katuri Sing-along Show
• Bubble Magic Show
• Flower Path Busking

Side events

• Yangju Globe Amaranth Autumn Festa Marathon (hosted by Yangju City Sports Council)

Practical information

• 📍 Address: Gwangsa-dong, Yangju-si, Gyeonggi-do
• 🛏️ Accommodation near the event
• 💰 Fee: Admission fee required
• 📞 Inquiry: 031-8082-5655
• ⭐️ Instagram: @yangju_festival
• 🖥️ Homepage: cheonilhong.kr

What is globe amaranth?

Globe amaranth (Gomphrena globosa) is an annual flower native to Central America and cultivated in tropical and warm temperate regions worldwide. It belongs to the amaranth family (Amaranthaceae). The common name comes from the flower heads, which are round, clover-like clusters of small tubular florets. These heads are made up of papery bracts rather than true petals, giving them a dry, stiff texture that persists after picking.

The plant grows upright to about 30 to 60 centimeters, with slender green leaves and firm stems. Flowers appear in magenta, purple, pink, white, and red, and remain on the plant from late summer into early autumn. Because the bracts hold their color and shape when dried, globe amaranth is a standard material in dried flower arrangements. In Korea, this durability has associated the plant with longevity and immortality.

The plant also has a history of practical use. Its flowers have been brewed into tea in traditional herbal medicine, and it has served as a source of natural dye and as material for festive decoration. It grows well in hot, sunny conditions and requires little attention once established, which makes it suited to open-field cultivation. These traits are also what allow the Yangju Autumn Globe Amaranth Festival to plant extensive fields of the flower and keep them presentable for visitors over several weeks. For gardeners and florists, globe amaranth offers an annual that does not wilt quickly and holds up both in the ground and after harvest.

Wonju Yongsu-gol Autumn Flower Festival

🗓️ 2026.09.23 ~ 2026.10.05

The Wonju Yongsugol Autumn Flower Festival is a community-driven event situated in the Yongsugol area of Seogok-ri, Panbu-myeon, Wonju-si, within the Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province. The 5th iteration of this festival is scheduled for 2026, running for 13 days from September 23 to October 5. Unlike large-scale commercial events, the festival grounds are spaces meticulously created and managed by village residents, who oversee everything from the initial planting of the flower beds to the general operation and environmental maintenance of the site.

This resident-led initiative transforms the rural landscape into a curated botanical display, utilizing the region’s natural environment to provide a seasonal tourism experience. While Yongsugol is known for its Flower Poppy Festival in the spring, the autumn event shifts its focus to a diverse array of blooms suitable for the cooler months. Visitors can explore several organized sections, each categorized by flower type and color, featuring zinnias, sunflowers, cosmos, yellow cosmos, verbena, globe amaranth, and asters.

Throughout the festival period, the programming focuses heavily on the aesthetic appreciation of the flower beds and photography. To complement the scenery, the local community provides dedicated spaces for the sale of regional agricultural products and traditional food.

Experience Programs and Sales

Beyond the floral displays, the festival offers interactive activities designed to engage visitors of all ages:

• Experience Programs: Guests may participate in the tin can train experience or engage in natural object craft experiences.
• Available Sales: A variety of items are available for purchase, including festival commemorative goods, commemorative red umbrellas, local agricultural products, flower seedlings, flower seeds, and various craft products.

Admission and Usage Fees

Entry to the festival is a paid experience, with pricing tiered based on age and eligibility:

Paid Entry

• Adults and Middle/High school students: 5,000 won
• Seniors (65 years or older), persons of national merit, the mildly disabled, and groups of 20 people or more: 3,000 won (Note: Discounts are limited to individuals who provide supporting documentation).

Free Entry

• Elementary school students and younger.
• Residents of Seogok 4-ri and weekend farm allottees of Flower Poppy Village.
• Individuals with severe disabilities (grade 3 or higher) provided they bring a welfare card.
• Disabled groups (please inquire by phone for specific arrangements).

Essential Information

📍 Address: 311 Yongsugol-gil, Panbu-myeon, Wonju-si, Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province

🛏️ Accommodations near the event

💰 Fee: Paid

📞 Inquiry: 033-764-4443

⭐️ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yongsugolpoppy/

🖥️ Website: https://blog.naver.com/seogok4/224385651544

Yongsugol

Yongsugol is a valley on the lower slopes of Chiaksan National Park in Wonju, Gangwon Province, South Korea. The name means “Dragon’s Valley,” after a local legend about a dragon said to have lived in the mountain streams that flow through the area. The valley itself is a mix of forested hillsides, rocky outcrops, and a stream that passes by old stone walls and the remains of farming terraces.

In recent decades, the valley has become known for its autumn flowers. Local residents and volunteers turned former rice paddies and open fields into planted gardens. Chrysanthemums, cosmos, and other late-blooming flowers now fill the lower slopes in October, arranged in beds along walking paths that follow the land’s contours. The plantings are not a formal park; they are working fields and gardens laid out for visitors while the village continues to operate around them. The flowers’ pinks, whites, and yellows sit against the yellows, oranges, and reds of maple trees on the surrounding hillsides.

Although visitor numbers rise sharply in October, Yongsugol still functions as a rural community. Wooden farmhouses, footbridges, and the sound of water over rocks give the valley a settled, unforced character. Walking the paths takes in both the flower displays and the everyday landscape of a mountain village. For most visitors, the appeal is straightforward: a chance to see cultivated autumn color in a valley that has not been turned into a theme park.

Yecheon Samgangjumak Ferry Landing Festival

🗓️ 2026.09.25 ~ 2026.09.27

The Samgang Naru Jumak Festival is a Chuseok holiday event that homecoming visitors and tourists enjoy together, set against Samgang Jumak, the last tavern (jumak) in Korea. The 2026 Yecheon Samgang Naru Jumak Festival will be held for three days from September 25th to 27th in the Samgang Cultural Complex area under the theme “The Tavern Reopened, Samgang Stirring.”

Based on the history and culture of Samgang Jumak—once a resting place for peddlers and travelers crossing the ferry terminal—the festival runs participatory programs including the Peddler Square, where actors dressed as peddlers, tavern keepers, hunters, and merchants bring the past to life. Visitors can also take part in the Samgang Golden Bell to learn about Samgang’s history and culture, try personality tests, and use the slow mailbox.

Hands-on activities include making dalgona, shooting, a spinning wheel experience, and hanbok experiences, alongside a dedicated kids’ zone. The entertainment lineup features performances by local artists, busking, and children’s performances. For shopping and dining, the Haeborae Market operates as a linked event with local agricultural and specialty products, handicrafts, and a food zone.

Programs at a Glance

Main Programs

• Stamp Tour, Peddler Sports Day, Samgang Kids Zone, Samgang Daldal Workshop

Side Programs

• Spinning Wheel Experience, Traditional Clothing Experience, Caricatures, Samgang Shooting Range, etc.

Performances

• Local Artist Stage, Samgang Busking, Children’s Performances, etc.

Exhibition & Sales

• Haeborae Market (Linked Event), Food Trucks, Local Agricultural/Specialty Product Sales, etc.

Event Details

• 📍 Address: 33 Samgangri-gil, Pungyang-myeon, Yecheon-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do
• 🛏️ Accommodations Near Event
• 💰 Fee: Free
• 📞 Inquiry: 054-650-6034
• ⭐️ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yctf.kr/
• 🖥️ Website: https://yctf.kr/2026samgang

Samgangjumak is a traditional Korean tavern in Yecheon, North Gyeongsang Province. It stands on the bank of the Nakdong River, near the point where three streams meet. That is where the name comes from: sam meaning “three,” and gang meaning “river” or “stream.” A jumak was a wayside tavern in the Joseon period, offering food, drink, and shelter to travelers. Jumaks were once a common feature of roads and river routes, but few have survived in their original form.

The Samgang ferry landing made this location a natural stopping place. During the Joseon era, the Nakdong was a busy transport route. Boats carried grain, salt, cloth, and other goods between inland markets and coastal ports, while travelers used the river for longer journeys. A ferry crossing was a point where people had to wait, and a jumak nearby gave them something to do during that time. A guest could get a hot meal, a bowl of makgeolli, and a place to rest before continuing on. The tavern also served an informal purpose: travelers exchanged news, merchants kept track of market conditions, and local residents heard what was happening beyond their own region.

Samgangjumak is notable because it has remained intact while most jumaks disappeared. The building keeps its original wooden structure, low tables, and open courtyard. It is protected as a cultural heritage site, but it is not treated as a sealed museum piece. Visitors can sit in the tavern, order food and drink, and observe the river at roughly the same pace a traveler would have two hundred years ago.

During the annual Yecheon Samgangjumak Ferry Landing Festival, the tavern becomes the center of a program that includes traditional music, cooking, and brewing demonstrations. The festival uses the site’s history as a ferry stop, and much of the activity takes place around the landing where boats once came and went. For the rest of the year, Samgangjumak operates as a historic tavern, open to visitors who want to understand how a Joseon-era rest stop worked.

Andong International Mask Dance Festival

🗓️ 2026.09.24 ~ 2026.10.04

The Andong International Mask Dance Festival is a global festival that brings mask dance traditions from Korea and around the world into one festival site. Korean mask dance, listed as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, is presented alongside mask dance performances by overseas troupes. The 2026 festival is designed to connect the time preserved in masks with present-day life, and to make those traditions accessible to everyone—from local residents to international visitors.

Rather than being purely stage-based, the festival turns the grounds into a participatory space. Visitors can watch a wide range of performances, take part in parades and the Daedong Nanjang (grand feast), follow the World Maskdance Competition, or try hands-on activities like mask making and learning a mask dance. The program includes performances, competitions, and food, making it possible for families, first-time visitors, and longtime enthusiasts to find their own way into the festival.

From children to the elderly, and from local residents to visitors from around the world, the moments when everyone laughs, claps, and shares rhythms in the same space turn the memories carried by masks into living culture. The festival is, in that sense, a “dance for everyone”—made complete by the people who gather, share the same rhythm, and turn a performance into a communal experience.

Program highlights

1. Domestic and international maskdance performances — Including domestic mask dance groups listed as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (“Korean Mask Dance”) and overseas mask dance performance groups.
2. Madang-geuk (traditional outdoor play) & creative plays, mask dance troupe performances
3. Competition events — Including the World Maskdance Competition, Mask Talent, World Creative Mask Contest, and Mask Dance Drawing Contest.
4. Citizen participation events — Including Daedong Nanjang and street parades.
5. Experiential programs — Including mask making and learning mask dance.
6. Festival food — A chance to experience both the mask dance festival and Andong through its cuisine.

Visitor information

📍 Address: 239 Yuksa-ro, Andong-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do (Unheung-dong)

🛏️ Accommodations near the event

💰 Fee: Free (Some experiential programs and performances at the mask dance performance hall have a fee)

📞 Inquiry: 054-840-3400

🖥️ Website: www.maskdance.com

The Andong Mask Dance, formally known as Hahoe Byeolsingut Talnori, is a Korean mask dance drama from Hahoe Village in Andong. It developed over centuries as part of village rituals intended to appease gods and ancestral spirits, pray for good harvests, and strengthen community ties. It also served as social commentary. Through humor, satire, and dialogue, performers used stock characters to parody the aristocracy and clergy, and to represent ordinary people’s lives. The wooden masks, traditionally carved from alder, distinguish each character by expression and shape; they include the nobleman, the monk, the bride, and the servant.

UNESCO inscribed Talchum, the broader Korean mask dance tradition, on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2022. The Andong Mask Dance is one of the tradition’s most historically significant and well-documented forms. Its inscription recognizes the practice’s cultural role rather than only its artistic value. The dance is still performed by community members, taught across generations, and adapted over time. UNESCO’s criteria emphasize dialogue, social cohesion, and mutual respect—qualities the performance has carried since its origins. The Andong International Mask Dance Festival, scheduled for 2026, will present the dance as part of this continuing tradition, along with related performances and programs.