The Seogwipo Chilsimni Festival is the main annual street festival of Seogwipo, the city on Jeju’s south coast. The festival is hosted by Seogwipo City and run by the Seogwipo Chilsimni Festival Promotion Committee. The 2026 edition is the 32nd, and its official slogan this year is “동GO동樂”.
The confirmed dates are 23-25 October 2026. KTO places the festival around the Cheonjiyeon Falls car park at 684 Seohong-dong, lists hours of 10:00-22:00, and records admission as free. That is a registry-level summary: it tells you when the site is open, not when each programme starts, and a daily timetable was not published in the sources checked for this guide.
What you actually do here
This is a festival you walk through rather than sit through. KTO’s description centres on a street parade, performances and busking in several genres, stages for local artists, food stalls and a flea market, all in and around Seogwipo’s old town and the sea. Because the programme is built around community groups, expect a local audience and local performers rather than a ticketed headline show.
The Korean programme list groups the 2026 events into four kinds. The main programme is a street parade and an opening ceremony tied to a drone light show. The competitions are a youth festa and the Chilsimni Song Contest. The themed events are Running in Chilsimni, Chilsimni Deumtem Day, a Chilsimni pump contest, a horror maze and a Chilsimni explorers’ programme. The standing programme is a mini sports day, a flea market and food trucks. The English meaning of “deumtem” and the format of the pump contest were not explained in the sources, so this guide does not guess.
Programme and timetable
Only a few items have fixed dates. The parade is on the first day, Friday 23 October, according to Jeju press commentary on the preparations, and the festival’s own 2026 text names the street parade and the drone-linked opening as its headline events. The 30th Chilsimni Song Contest is Sunday 25 October at 18:00 at the Cheonjiyeon car park, per Jejudomin and Newsnjeju; its qualifying round is scheduled for 14 October and entry is limited to Jeju residents, with KRW 1.5 million for the top award.
What is not confirmed matters as much. We found no 2026 parade hour or route, no hour or date for the opening ceremony and drone show, no performer list, and no times for the running event, horror maze or pump contest. Last year’s parade ran about 2.8 km from Jungjeong-ro along Jeongbang-ro and Chilsimni-ro to the Cheonjiyeon area, but that was the 2025 route and the 2026 route should be checked rather than assumed. The festival has also moved before: in 2024 it was at the Jeju World Cup Stadium plaza, in 2025 it moved to the Cheonjiyeon area, and 2026 stays there.
Tickets, fees and booking
There is no entry ticket, and none of the sources checked described a paid programme or reservation step. The street parade in 2025 was open to individuals, families, clubs, companies and tourists as participants, but the 2026 sign-up details were not confirmed here, so ask the organiser if you want to march. For anything specific, call Seogwipo City’s tourism contact on 064-760-3942.
Getting there without a car
From Seoul, the practical route is by air: Gimpo to Jeju International Airport takes about an hour and a quarter, with well over a hundred scheduled flights a day on the route. There is no rail connection to Jeju. Jeju also hosts the National Sports Festival on 16-22 October, just before this festival, but this guide has no verified figure for how full flights or hotels will be.
From the airport, Airport Limousine Bus 600 runs south through the Jungmun resort area to Seogwipo; travel sites put the ride at roughly 55 minutes to 80 minutes depending on stops, and a taxi at 40-50 minutes. Fares differ between sources, so check the current price on the day. Travel sites list local buses to the Cheonjiyeon Falls area from central Seogwipo, plus a walk of roughly 10-15 minutes from the nearest stops; a taxi avoids the guesswork. Search Naver Map or Kakao Map for the Cheonjiyeon Falls car park by its Korean name, “Cheonjiyeon Pokpo Jucha-jang”, rather than relying on a bus number quoted online, since routes can change.
Other Jeju events the same month
Late October is busy on the island, and press roundups help with planning. The 107th National Sports Festival is spread across Jeju on 16-22 October, with about 30,000 athletes and officials expected, according to JoongAng Daily. The 65th Tamna Culture Festival runs 17-21 October, with its main stage at the Jeju Citizen Welfare Town square in Jeju City, and a Jeju horse festival is listed for 24 October, the middle day of the Chilsimni weekend. Its venue was not stated in the roundups we read. The first two end before the Chilsimni Festival opens, so they do not overlap with it, but they may affect flights and rooms in the days before.
Parking, shuttles and traffic control
No festival shuttle, parking plan or road-closure notice for 2026 was found. The site is a car park, which usually means the space itself is part of the event, but that is an expectation, not a published fact. If you are renting a car on Jeju, check with the organiser first and treat any parking you find nearby as a convenience. Taxis are the safest bet for the evening, especially after the 18:00 song contest on Sunday.
Day trip or overnight
The flight alone is about an hour and a quarter, plus the one-hour-plus road transfer each way, so a same-day return is possible in principle. This guide does not recommend it, because the evening items are the ones with fixed hours and the last flight back depends on your date, which was not checked. If the opening ceremony or the song contest matters to you, one night in Seogwipo is the less rushed option. Hotel prices and availability were not verified.
Food on site and nearby
The festival lists food trucks and a flea market among its standing programme, but no vendor list, price or menu was published. For a regional dish, Seogwipo is known for seafood from its own coast; see the specialty entries on this page for two documented examples. Whether either appears at the festival is unconfirmed.
What to confirm before you go
Four things decide whether a plan works, and none was published when this guide was written. First, the hour of the parade on Friday and whether its route matches last year’s. Second, the date and hour of the opening ceremony and drone show. Third, whether a shuttle or any parking is offered. Fourth, the start times of the themed events such as the running event and horror maze. The most reliable places to look are the festival site at 70festival.com, KTO’s festival portal and the Seogwipo tourism office on 064-760-3942. The festival’s Instagram account is listed by KTO as @seogwipo_festa_70, and is worth checking for notices close to the date.
Honest assessment
The festival’s strength is its setting and its civic character. It is free, it uses Seogwipo’s old town and the area beside Cheonjiyeon Falls, and its parade is built from local groups rather than imported acts. If you are already on Jeju’s south coast that weekend, it is an easy way to see how the city celebrates itself.
Its weakness, from a planning standpoint, is how little is fixed. As of 10 October there was no published hour for the parade or the drone show, no performer list, and no transport plan. The photos on this page come from KTO’s festival gallery and may show earlier editions, so they are an indication of the atmosphere, not a preview of 2026. Come for the atmosphere, confirm the hour of the one thing you most want to see with the organiser, and do not cross the island for it without a plan for the rest of the day.
