Seoul(Jung-gu) , Seoul City Hall・Gwanghwamun

Starting on a spring night in May at Deoksugung Palace, experience Korea's modern history through various events planned until 10 PM at cultural sites throughout the Jeong-dong area. Performances will take place throughout the many festival locations, for vistors from home and abroad to enjoy a unique cultural festival while making wonderful memories of their time in Jung-gu.


Seoul(Jongno-gu) , Insadong・Jongnon

Inwangsan Mountain Cheongun Park Festival will take place in celebration of hopeful new year. Variety of events will be prepared such as wish writing, cultural performances, and more.


Jeollabuk-do(Muju-gun)

The Muju Firefly Festival takes place in the pure environment of Muju, a natural habitat for fireflies and the marsh snails the fireflies feed on. The festival offers many attractions and activities but the highlight of the festival starts after 8:00 pm when the fireflies begin to light up the night sky.


Chungcheongnam-do(Seocheon-gun)

Famous for its unique taste, gizzard shads are a type of Herring delicacy in Korea best enjoyed in the fall. Hongwonhang Port in Seocheon (Chungcheongnam-do) hosts the Jeoneo (gizzard shad) Festival every October for visitors to enjoy a fresh catch of this fish served up in a variety of ways. A number of popular dishes range from roasted to sashimi-sliced Jeoneo and even salads mixed with spicy marinated Jeoneo, cucumbers, sesame leaves, and parsley.The festival opens with exciting performances and a food-tasting event and ends with a spectacular evening fireworks show. Visitors can also taste a variety of other local dishes made with salted eel, dried seaweed, crab, and shrimp. Fresh produce and seafood will also be available for sale in the various shops and stands. Additional exciting events include contests for fish-catching, shell-gathering, fishing, and singing.


Jeollanam-do(Jindo-gun)

Once a year at Jindo Island in Jeollanam-do, the sea mysteriously parts and visitors can walk through the sea from the main island to a smaller nearby island. This phenomenon is due to the difference between high and low tides, creating a 2.8-kilometer-long road measuring 40 meters in x_width.The Jindo Miracle Sea Road Festival takes place at the same time as this phenomenon. Visitors can enjoy walking along the sea road, gathering abalone and various other fun activities that make up the festival program. The spectacular sight of the waves parting is widely known and about half a million visitors flock from all over the world just to witness this amazing event.


Busan(Yeonje-gu)

The Asia Song Festival is one of the most popular music events that aims to do away with the existing cultural barriers by bringing together performers from all across the region. For 2014, the event will take place on November 2, 2014 starting at 6 p.m.


Gwangju(Buk-gu)

Gwangju Biennale is an international contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years. Taking place in 2014, the event marks 10th anniversay and will celebrate the importance of being together though the theme of “Burning Down the House (터전을 불태우라).” It will bring together many different people, different times, various roles in arts production, and numerous different positions toward power such as exist  in various social, political, and cultural situations. The biennale consists of an exhibition, several workshops, e-journals, books, and various programs such as residency programs and new commissions. [About the 2014's theme] Burning Down the Houseexplores the process of burning and transformation, a cycle of obliteration and renewal witnessed throughout history. Evident in aesthetics, historical events, and an increasingly rapid course of redundancy and renewal in commercial culture, the Biennale reflects on this process of, often violent, events of destruction or self-destruction―burning the home one occupies―followed by the promise of the new and the hope for change. In the 1930s the critic Walter Benjamin coined the term ‘Tigersprung’ (the tiger’s leap) for a new model of history where the past is activated in and through the present within a culture industry that demands constant renewal. What can the ‘Tigerspung’ mean for today’s ‘tiger economies’ like South Korea in a context where economic and political powers deliver the eternally new of fashionable commodities and industrial progress at the apparent expense of a cultural past? Burning Down the House looks at the spiral of rejection and revitalization that this process implies. The theme highlights the capacity of art to critique the establishment through an exploration that includes the visual, sound, movement and dramatic performance. At the same time, it recognises the possibility and impossibility within art to deal directly and concretely with politics. The energy, the materiality and processes of burning ― the manner in which material is changed and destroyed by flames into the residue of dramatic interventions or remnants of celebrations ― have long informed artistic practice. The transformative powers of fire are central to the way in which this exhibition has been imagined. -Courtesy of Gwangju Biennale Foundation  


Seoul(Jung-gu) , Euljiro・Chungmuro・Namsan

The Million People Walking Festival is an event free and open to everyone. Group participation is also available, giving companies, schools, and private groups the chance to enjoy the beautiful spring together. This event will also promote the ecological and historical importance of Namsan Mountain and its seasonal changes.The walking course will include roads paved with elastic blocks, on which people can walk comfortably, and beautiful small streams, providing enjoyable scenery and a good environment for taking a walk. There will be two courses including a 7km full course along Bukcheuksunhwan-ro Road (The north side circle road) (1 hr and 30 min). Various sideline events such as celebratory performances will take place, and there will be a photo zone for family and group participants.


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The installation of a massive Christmas tree will set a start to the Boseong Green Tea Plantation Light Festival, which is located in Boseong-gun at the Boseong Green Tea Plantation, one of Korea’s excellent tourist sites. The evening light ceremony will kick off the festival, where an embroidered spectacle of lights is expected to entrance visitors. Various sites and activities like the giant Christmas tree, a themed street, a galaxy tunnel, illuminations of Botjae and Dahyanggak, a lighted street, a photo zone, resolution stairs, and hanging wish cards will be available. With a jaw-dropping size of 120 meters high and 130 meters wide, the massive Christmas tree at Boseong Tea Plantation made it into the Guinness Book of Records in 2000, and contributes to making Boseong, Korea’s home of tea and sounds, a well-known Korean attraction. During the festival, the landscape will be graced with a romantic and magical ambience of falling snow created by the arrangement of LED lights.    


Chungcheongbuk-do(Eumseong-gun)

Pumba was the word repeated in the songs of street singers, especially when Korea was once impoverished. They strolled around marketplaces or villages seeking food, money, or anything they could get. Pumba doesn’t have a specific meaning but is a language mechanism for keeping a rhythm. These days, the word pumba generally refers to gakseori. These performers do not beg for food or money, but do sing at events or festivals. The Pumba Festival is held in Eumseong every year. Programs offer a visit to the old days of poverty and a glimpse of the performances and lifestyles of various gakseoris. The festival participants are top performing gakseoris who entertain at marketplaces, festivals, or theaters around the nation. No wonder the festival is filled with energetic and exciting performances as well as endless laughter from the audience.