Korea festivals worth planning around
A curated calendar of major Korean festivals worth planning a trip around. Confirmed dates, getting-there from Seoul, and a few tips per festival. Refreshed when official dates change.
June 2026
This month3 festivals
Eumseong Pumba Festival
A June festival in Eumseong, Chungbuk, celebrating the pumba (품바) tradition of wandering entertainer-beggars who sang and performed for coins, a genre now recognised as a distinct Korean folk art with competitive performances and live concerts.
Gwangalli Eobangg Festival
A spring festival on Gwangalli Beach in Busan celebrating the area's fishing village heritage, featuring a historical musical performance, folk village, and drone-and-fireworks shows over the iconic Gwangan Bridge, with free entry throughout.
Gangneung Danoje
A thousand-year-old shamanic and folk festival held around the lunar fifth day of the fifth month. Inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2005.
July 2026
3 festivals
Daegu Chimac Festival
Five days of fried chicken (chi) and beer (mac) at Duryu Park in Daegu. The festival that made chimaek a Korean cultural export.
Boryeong Mud Festival
Korea's most internationally famous festival. Two weeks of mud baths, mud wrestling, and beach concerts at Daecheon Beach in mid-summer.
Incheon Pentaport Music Festival
Korea's largest international multi-genre music festival, held July 31 to August 2, 2026, at Songdo Moonlight Festival Park in Incheon, featuring Khruangbin, Silica Gel, and 28 acts across multiple stages under the theme Movement.
September 2026
6 festivals
Muju Firefly Festival
Late-summer festival celebrating Muju's protected firefly populations, one of the few places in Korea where wild fireflies still appear in numbers.
Gwangju Biennale
Asia's leading contemporary art biennial, held September 5 to November 15, 2026, in Gwangju under the title You Must Change Your Life, with Artistic Director Ho Tzu Nyen curating a programme across the main hall and city satellite venues.
Bucheon International Comics Festival
Asia's largest annual comic-art festival, held each September at the Korea Cartoon Museum in Bucheon, Gyeonggi, with exhibitions, industry panels, cosplay events, and direct sales from Korean and international comic creators.
Siheung Gaetgol Wetland Festival
A late September festival at Siheung Gaetgol Eco Park, the only inland tidal wetland in Gyeonggi Province, featuring reed field walks, salt-making experiences, mudflat ecology activities, and a salt harvest market.
Jeju Haenyeo Festival
An annual September festival at Haenyeo Museum in Gujwa-eup, Jeju, honouring the island's female free-divers, whose tradition is a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, with diving demonstrations, cultural exhibitions, and community celebrations.
Andong Mask Dance Festival
Ten days of traditional Korean mask dance (talchum) performances in Andong, the cultural capital of Korea's Confucian heartland.
October 2026
13 festivals
Busan International Film Festival (BIFF)
Asia's largest and most prestigious film festival. Ten days of premieres, retrospectives, and director Q&As at the Busan Cinema Center and surrounding venues.
Jeongseon Arirang Festival
A four-day October festival in Jeongseon, Gangwon, celebrating the original source of Korea's Arirang folk song tradition, with a national singing contest, parade, and folk performances in the mountain valley town where the song was born.
Anseong Namsadang Baudeokki Festival
An October festival in Anseong, Gyeonggi, celebrating the Namsadang Nori travelling performance tradition (UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage) with acrobatics, tightrope, mask dance, and percussion performances at Anseong Matchum Land.
Bupyeong Pungmul Festival
An autumn festival in Bupyeong, Incheon, celebrating the pungmul (풍물) percussion and dance tradition through competitive performances, street processions, and free open-air concerts, drawing troupes from across the country.
Busan International Rock Festival
Korea's premier outdoor rock festival, held October 2 to 4, 2026, at Samnak Ecological Park on the Nakdonggang River in Busan, with three days of domestic and international acts. Newly designated by MCST for 2026-2027.
Jinju Namgang Yudeung Festival
Thousands of handcrafted lanterns floated on the Namgang River in Jinju, commemorating a 16th-century battle. The most photographed lantern festival in Korea.
Suwon Hwaseong Cultural Festival
One of Korea's most recognised autumn festivals at Suwon's UNESCO World Heritage Hwaseong Fortress, with a 4,000-person royal procession recreating King Jeongjo's 1795 pilgrimage and night tours of the illuminated fortress walls.
Sejong Hangul Festival
An October festival in Sejong City celebrating the Korean alphabet (한글) around Hangul Day, featuring cultural performances, science exhibitions, and language-themed events at Sejong Lake Park, newly designated by MCST for 2026-2027.
Dongrae Eupseong History Festival
A three-day October festival at Dongrae Eupseong Fortress in Busan, commemorating the first battle of the 1592 Imjin War with historical reenactments, a traditional tug-of-war, tightrope walking, and a magistrate inauguration street parade.
Sunchang Fermented Sauce Festival
An autumn festival in Sunchang, Jeonbuk, the heartland of Korean gochujang and doenjang production, with fermentation workshops, sauce tastings, and direct sales from traditional jang (장) producers at Sunchang Gochujang Village.
Gwangju World Kimchi Festival
Korea's flagship kimchi festival, held each autumn in Gwangju, with kimjang (communal kimchi-making) sessions, prize-winning kimchi showcases, open tastings, and cooking demonstrations combining kimchi with global cuisines.
Cheongsong Apple Festival
A late October festival in Cheongsong, Gyeongbuk, celebrating the region's prized mountain-grown apples, with orchard harvests, tasting events, direct farm sales, and a backdrop of Juwangsan National Park in full autumn foliage.
Gangneung Coffee Festival
Korea's premier coffee festival, held each late October in Gangneung, the coastal city credited with starting Korea's specialty coffee culture, with mass hand-drip ceremonies, roastery tours, tasting competitions, and beachside cafe events.
January 2027
3 festivals
Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival
Three weeks of ice fishing for sancheoneo (mountain trout) on a frozen river in Gangwon. CNN ranked it among the world's seven wonders of winter.
Pyeongchang Trout Festival
Korea's most popular winter ice fishing festival, held each January and February along the frozen Odaecheon stream in Pyeongchang. Visitors drill holes in the ice and catch trout by hand or rod, with snow tubing and sledding rounding out the programme.
Cheorwon Hantan River Ice Trekking Festival
A January ecotourism festival in Cheorwon, Gangwon, where visitors hike along the frozen Hantangang River gorge past sheer basalt cliffs and frozen waterfalls in the DMZ border region of the Korean peninsula.
March 2027
2 festivals
Jeju Fire Festival (Deulbul)
Controlled-burn festival on the slopes of Saebyeol Oreum in Jeju, originally a livestock-pasture renewal practice turned dramatic mass-spectacle.
Nonsan Strawberry Festival
A springtime celebration of the strawberry harvest in Nonsan, Chungnam, held each late March. Visitors pick strawberries in the fields, taste varieties not found in supermarkets, and enjoy music and food programmes across the city.
April 2027
6 festivals
Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival
Korea's most famous cherry blossom festival, hosted in the former naval port of Jinhae. Tens of thousands of trees line the Yeojwacheon stream and Gyeonghwa Station rail tracks.
Jeju Seogwipo Canola Flower Festival
A two-day April festival at Gasi-ri in Seogwipo, Jeju, celebrating the island's signature canola flower bloom across the Gotjawal plateau, with a night opening, a canola run through the fields, and live performances.
Yeongam Wangin Culture Festival
A spring festival in Yeongam, Jeonnam, held amid cherry blossoms in early April to honour the Baekje scholar Wangin, who brought Korean writing and culture to Japan in the 4th century, with a grand parade and folk performances.
Goryeong Daegaya Experience Festival
An April festival in Goryeong, Gyeongbuk, celebrating the ancient Daegaya kingdom's 520-year history through cultural performances, royal burial mound tours, and iron-craft workshops, set among tumuli on Korea's UNESCO World Heritage submission list.
Hampyeong Butterfly Festival
A late April and early May festival at Hampyeong Expo Park in Jeonnam, where thousands of live butterflies are released into enclosed gardens and wildflower fields, creating one of Korea's most distinctive nature-themed events.
Icheon Ceramics Festival
Korea's largest ceramics festival, held each spring in Icheon, a UNESCO Creative City of Ceramics, where over 120 studios exhibit and sell celadon, white porcelain, and buncheong ware alongside live wheel-throwing demonstrations.
May 2027
4 festivals
Boseong Green Tea Festival
A May festival at Korea's most famous green tea plantation in Boseong, Jeonnam, where visitors pick fresh tea leaves on terraced hillside gardens, attend tea ceremonies, and explore a growing matcha-focused programme for younger visitors.
Damyang Bamboo Festival
Five days of bamboo-themed crafts, food, and forest walks in Damyang, Korea's bamboo capital. Centered on the Juknokwon bamboo forest.
Ulsan Onggi Festival
Korea's only festival dedicated to onggi (traditional earthenware), held each May at Oegosan Onggi Village in Ulsan, where potters throw, fire, and sell traditional vessels while visitors try their hand at the wheel.
Yeoncheon Paleolithic Festival
A May festival at the Jeongok-ri Paleolithic site in Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi, where visitors engage with prehistory through stone-tool making, shelter-building, and survival experiences set at the first East Asian site where Acheulean hand-axes were found.