Seoul Silver Grass Festival 2026 (서울억새축제)

Haneul Park is a hilltop in Seoul’s World Cup Park that began as a landfill. KTO describes how the ground was reshaped and, in large part thanks to the planting of silver grass, became a healthy ecosystem; the park now holds the largest colony of silver grass in Seoul. The festival has been held there each October since 2002, when World Cup Park opened, and Seoul’s English page puts the grass area at about 198,000 square metres, which Korean coverage calls roughly 60,000 pyeong.

The 2026 edition is the 25th, with the theme “Silver grass, comfort from nature” (a translation of the Korean theme line in the press coverage). It runs 17-23 October 2026, 10:00-21:00 daily. KTO lists admission as free. This is a short, seven-day window, and the grass itself is a plant, so what you see depends on the weather rather than on the calendar.

What you actually do here

Mostly you walk through the grass. The festival adds activity around the walk rather than replacing it. Seoul’s 2026 page lists an opening ceremony with celebratory performances and a lighting show, experience zones that include silver grass bouquet making, photo zones and wish-writing areas, busking across genres on a central stage, and a “Re-born Market” with recycled planters, permaculture produce and upcycled grass products.

Treat those as a menu of categories, not a timetable. The 2026 page does not give times for each item in what I could read, and no named performers were published. If a particular programme matters to you, check the official page for the date you plan to visit.

Programme and timetable

The only firm schedule is the daily window of 10:00-21:00. For the shape of the programme, last year’s notice from the Seoul parks office is the best guide, and it is labelled here as a 2025 pattern, not a 2026 promise. In 2025 the media art ran from 19:00 to 20:30 each night, busking from 14:00 to 17:30, and the experience workshops from 13:30 to 17:30, with an opening ceremony at 18:00 on the first day.

If 2026 follows that rhythm, afternoons will be for crafts and street music and the evening for lights. That is an inference, not a fact. The 2026 opening-day lighting show is confirmed; nightly media art is not. Check the notice again a few days ahead.

One 2026 time is published. Seoul’s own call for sellers puts the Re-born Market at Haneul Park on 17-23 October, 14:30-18:30, with about 15 sellers a day, in three groups: recycled planters and compost, permaculture seasonal produce and herbs, and goods made from silver grass and other ornamental grasses. It is a small craft-and-garden market, not a food court, and it closes before dusk. Seoul’s notice said the seller selection would be announced on 8 October, so which sellers appear on which day was not yet public.

Daily timings known for 2026, then, are these: the park and festival open 10:00-21:00, the market runs 14:30-18:30, and the cart stops at 19:00. Everything else on the programme is a category without a clock time.

Tickets, fees and booking

There is no entrance ticket: KTO lists the festival as free. The costs you may meet are separate. The Maengkkongi electric cart that runs from the Nanjicheon Park car park up to the hilltop charges adult fares of 2,000 won one way or 3,000 won return, and 1,500 won or 2,200 won for children aged 4-12, according to the 2026 transport guide. A return ticket does not extend the cart’s operating hours.

No fee or booking requirement for the bouquet-making or other experience zones had been published when this guide was written. If you want to do one, ask on site or check the official page rather than assuming it is included.

Getting there without a car

Seoul’s festival page gives the route in one line: Line 6 to World Cup Stadium Station or Mapo-gu Office Station, then roughly 40 minutes on foot. The transport guide specifies Exit 1 at World Cup Stadium Station. The hilltop is reached either by the 291 Sky Stairs, a figure from a Seoul city walking-course article, or by the cart.

Be careful with the cart’s boarding point. It is at Nanjicheon Park, not at the stadium station’s entrance, so the cart does not remove the walk from the station; it replaces the climb at the hill. The guide gives the October service hours as 09:00-19:00, with the last uphill departure 30 minutes before the end. The festival stays open until 21:00. That gap means the last two hours of the day are done on foot, and anyone with limited mobility should plan to go up before 19:00. I did not find a statement on wheelchair access for the cart.

Parking, shuttles and traffic control

No 2026 parking notice was found. In previous years the city’s official notices called traffic very congested and recommended public transport, and I saw nothing to suggest 2026 is different. The Nanjicheon Park car park is where the cart starts, but its capacity and any festival-period rates for 2026 were not published in the sources I could verify. Choosing the subway removes the question.

A neighbouring event also affects the area. The Mapo Saeujeot (salted shrimp) Festival runs 16-18 October 2026 at the Peace Plaza in World Cup Park, and the district expects it to pass 500,000 visitors. Mapo’s district head is openly hoping that silver grass visitors will walk down to it. If you want the quietest visit, that points away from the first weekend, though no official crowd forecast exists to confirm it.

Day trip or overnight

Haneul Park is inside Seoul, so there is no transfer to plan around: for anyone staying in the city this is a half-day outing, not a trip that needs a bed nearby. The practical limits are the 21:00 closing time and the walk or cart ride at each end. I did not check the last Line 6 trains from World Cup Stadium Station, so if you are staying late for the evening lighting, look up the last train for your direction before you go up the hill rather than assuming it.

If you are travelling from outside Seoul, the same logic applies in reverse: the festival does not fix your return time, your own train or bus does.

Food on site and nearby

No food-stall list or restaurant programme for the 2026 festival was published in the sources I could verify, so this guide names none. What is confirmed is the Re-born Market (14:30-18:30), which sells permaculture produce, herbs and upcycled goods; that is shopping for plants and crafts more than a meal.

The better-documented food option is next door in time and place. The Mapo Saeujeot (salted shrimp) Festival, now in its 19th year, runs 16-18 October 2026 at the Peace Plaza in World Cup Park, and the district has increased its sales booths from 8 to 12, according to TF News on 7 October. It overlaps only the first two days of the silver grass festival (17-18 October), so if food is part of your plan, those are the days. After that you will be eating outside the park. A travel guide to Haneul Park suggests Mangwon Market as an optional meal after coming back down; I could not verify that against a second source, so treat it as a suggestion, not a recommendation backed by this guide.

Honest assessment

The park’s strength is its setting: a broad open hilltop of grass, entered free, inside the city, with a city skyline beyond it. The festival layer, from photo zones to the busking stage, is a pleasant addition, not the reason to go. Without a published 2026 timetable it would be a mistake to plan a trip around a particular show.

The practical weaknesses are the climb and the early end of the cart. If you want the lit evening, you will probably walk or climb for part of it. The dates also cannot promise peak colour, and the festival’s opening weekend shares the park area with a very large food-and-shopping festival. Go in the afternoon, ride up before 19:00 if you do not want the stairs, and treat the evening programme as something to confirm on the official page before you rely on it.