Hanseong Baekje Cultural Festival 2026 (제26회 한성백제문화제)

The Hanseong Baekje Cultural Festival is the Songpa district’s main autumn event, held on the open lawn of Olympic Park in south-east Seoul. The name refers to Hanseong Baekje, the early Baekje kingdom whose capital stood in what is now the Seoul area; the nearby Mongchontoseong and Hanseong Baekje subway stations carry the same heritage in their names. In 2026 the festival is the 26th edition and runs Friday 23 to Sunday 25 October at the 88 Lawn Field. The theme is “Brilliant culture, deep resonance, one Korea” in the district’s wording (찬란한 문화, 깊은 울림, 하나된 우리).

Dates are confirmed by the KTO festival listing, Songpa’s own page, Seoul’s festival portal and the press coverage of the 12 October briefing. An earlier national planning list gave the middle of October, but every current source says 23-25 October. The Songpa page itself describes it as a K-culture festival built on the Hanseong Baekje legacy, which is a fair summary of the programme: a lot of staged entertainment, with local-history flavour as a backdrop rather than the main event.

What you actually do here

The ground is one wide lawn with a very large main stage at one end, a field of white tents for experience booths and food stalls along the edge, and plenty of open grass where people lay picnic mats and watch the shows. Most visitors treat it as a day or evening on the lawn rather than a route to follow. You can drift between three things: the stage, the activity zones and the food market.

Songpa lists the core programme as an opening show, a closing concert, a community performance called Hanmaum Eoulmadang, experience and promotion booths, and a food market. The district says the main stage this year is its biggest ever, a multi-level structure about 60 metres long with LED screens, lighting and sound.

Programme and timetable

Only some times have been published, and all of them come from the district’s page or from reports of its 12 October press briefing.

Friday 23 October. The opening performance starts at 19:00. It combines the Welcome Drone Show, media art and contemporary dance with the Songpa District Symphony Orchestra and choir, a joint set by three tenors (Yoon Jung-soo, Jin Sung-won and Lee Dong-myung), and pop and hip-hop acts Loco and Davichi.

Saturday 24 October. A musical gala titled Standing by the River (강가에 서서) is reported for 11:00; it retells the Dominaru legend, a local story, in modern form. The Hanmaum Eoulmadang community stage starts at 16:50, and one report gives its end as 20:20. Residents from the district’s 27 neighbourhoods take part, which makes it more of a hometown show than a headline act.

Sunday 25 October. The closing Hanseong Culture Concert starts at 19:00. Reported elements are an ensemble of 30 geomungo (Korean zither) players, fusion gugak from Lee Bong-geun, and K-pop group Kep1er and hip-hop duo Dynamic Duo as the final acts.

The order of artists within each evening was not given. If one act is the reason you are coming, assume it is somewhere in the 19:00 block and arrive at the start.

The opening night and the drone show

The Friday show is what most press coverage focuses on: 900 drones, which Songpa says is its largest drone show so far. Open ground helps here, because the whole sky above the lawn is visible from almost anywhere. The district reported about 500,000 visitors last year and expects about 600,000 this year across the three days, so the first evening is the likeliest to be crowded. The district is also posting more than 200 safety staff each day, 70 more than the previous year, with live monitoring of the site.

Family zones, craft and food

For children there is a Hanseong Baekje kids’ café zone with large inflatables and building-block areas, plus a playground built around hinoki-style cypress wood. Baekje costume dressing and roughly 20 craft and culture activities are also listed. The experience village runs 10:00-19:00.

The Hanseong Baekje market (한성백제장터) is a K-food market run by 17 groups and is open 11:00-21:00, so it outlasts the activity zones by two hours. No menu, price list or payment method was published in the sources checked, so this guide does not name dishes or assume card acceptance. Bring a small amount of cash to be safe.

Tickets, fees and booking

There is no entry ticket: KTO lists admission as free. Separately, some activity programmes charge an experience fee of 5,000-10,000 won, according to the same KTO listing. Which activities those are, whether queues are first-come, and how long each one takes were not published. The sources checked do not mention any reservation system for the stage shows, so plan on standing or sitting on the lawn rather than holding a seat.

For anything specific, call the organiser at 02-2147-2800, or the 120 Dasan Call Center.

Getting there without a car

Songpa’s page asks visitors to use public transport and names the two closest stations. Mongchontoseong Station on Line 8 (Exit 1) and Hanseong Baekje Station on Line 9 (Exit 2) both drop you at the park’s edge. Olympic Park Station (Lines 5 and 9) also serves the park, but the festival page does not name it, so follow the festival page’s pair for the shortest walk to the 88 Lawn.

I have not stated a journey time from central Seoul because no source checked gave one, and it varies a lot with your starting point. Put the station name into a transit app on the day, and leave extra time after the 19:00 and 21:00 finishes, when the platforms will be at their busiest.

Parking and traffic control

The festival page says to use public transport and, for drivers, to use the South Gate 2 (P1) or East Gate 2 (P2) car parks. Another report on the festival says the car park closest to the lawn, at South Gate 4, is closed for the event, and that driving is likely to be inconvenient. That listing also names West Gate 1 and North Gate 2 lots. No shuttle, no parking fee and no capacity figure were published. The park’s operator publishes a live car-park occupancy page, which is worth opening before you set off.

Before you go: what to re-check

Three things are most likely to change after this guide was written. First, the running order of the evening shows, which the district had not itemised. Second, the activity fees and which booths charge them. Third, the car-park arrangements, since the lot closest to the stage is reported closed. The festival page on songpa.go.kr is the source the district itself points people to, and the Dasan Call Center on 120 handles general questions. If you phone the festival office on 02-2147-2800, no English-language support on that line was confirmed.

Honest assessment

The festival’s strength is scale and price: a free, large, open-air programme in south-east Seoul, with named pop and classical acts on a big stage and a lawn where families can settle in for the day. Because entry is free and the lineup is well publicised, it also draws a very large crowd, and the organisers’ own forecast of 600,000 visitors is the main thing to plan for.

Its weak points are practical. Sources do not give a full running order, the fees for activities, the market menu or any shuttle plan, and the car park nearest the stage is reportedly shut. It is also an evening-heavy outdoor event in late October, so a layer of warm clothing and a mat for the lawn are sensible, though no rain plan was published. KTO notes only that content may change with conditions on the day, so check the Songpa festival page the day before you go.

Go for the Friday opening if the drone show is your priority, and come earlier in the day on Saturday or Sunday if you are bringing children. For anyone mainly interested in the history of Hanseong Baekje, the festival is a pleasant introduction to the theme but not a deep one.