Cover Story · 2026 W40

The Week the River Becomes the Stage — A Long Holiday Weekend on the Han

Let's Rock Festival (렛츠락 페스티벌)

Nanji Han River Park, Oct 3-4. The 20th edition of the big riverside rock festival, on the grass in the west of the city over the holiday weekend. Ticketed (day passes around 110,000 won, two-day around 187,000 won), so this is a buy-in-advance plan, not a walk-up. The one on this list for a full festival day outdoors.

Oct 3-4 · Nanji Han River Park · Festivals · Details →

2026 K-Wave Dance Festival

Itaewon-ro, Yongsan-gu, Oct 3-4. A free street K-dance festival along the roughly 400m stretch between Itaewon and Noksapyeong stations, both days from noon. No ticket, right on Line 6, and easy to enjoy without a word of Korean — a strong low-effort holiday-weekend option in a neighborhood a lot of residents already know.

[Free] · Oct 3-4 · Itaewon-ro · Festivals · Official →

2026 BEER FEST COEX

COEX East Gate Plaza, Gangnam-gu, Oct 7-11. Free entry to an outdoor beer festival at COEX, running afternoon into the evening across the second half of the week. Easy to reach, easy to fold into a Gangnam evening, and no booking needed — you pay only for what you drink. Aimed at adults.

[Free entry] · Oct 7-11 · COEX, Gangnam-gu · Festivals · Official →

Ghibli & Disney Orchestra Concert (지브리 & 디즈니 오케스트라 콘서트)

Lotte Concert Hall, Oct 4. A film-music orchestra evening of Studio Ghibli and Disney scores — the crowd-pleaser of the week and an easy sell for a holiday-Sunday outing with family or anyone. Instrumental, so no language barrier. Ticketed; book ahead.

Oct 4 · Lotte Concert Hall · Classical · Details →

Lee Hi Solo Concert (이하이 솔로 콘서트)

NOL Theater Hapjeong (formerly Shinhan Card SOL Pay Square), Oct 3. A single holiday-night solo show from the R&B singer, in a mid-size hall in Hapjeong. Tickets have been running near sold-out (general around 132,000 won), so if you want in, chase returns rather than counting on same-day. Ticketed through Korean-language platforms.

Oct 3 · NOL Theater Hapjeong · K-POP / Pop · Details →

2026 Seoul Tourism ON Festa (2026 서울관광 ON 페스타)

Namsan Palgakjeong area, Jung-gu, Oct 2-3, 13:00-20:00. A free city-run festival up at the Namsan octagonal pavilion over the first two days of the holiday — an easy afternoon-into-evening on the mountain with the skyline as backdrop, no ticket needed.

[Free] · Oct 2-3 · Namsan Palgakjeong, Jung-gu · Festivals · Info →

Smart Life Week 2026 (스마트라이프위크 2026)

COEX Halls A & B, Gangnam-gu, Oct 6-8. The city's free AI-and-technology expo, run by Seoul and the Seoul AI Foundation — a weekday indoor option once the holiday crowds thin out. Free admission, easy to reach, and internationally oriented enough to navigate without much Korean.

[Free] · Oct 6-8 · COEX, Gangnam-gu · Festivals · Official →

Minor Beings (숨은 존재들)

Arko Arts Theater Main Hall, Jongno-gu, Oct 3-4. A new large-stage contemporary-dance work over the holiday weekend, in a serious dance house in the heart of the city. Dance travels without translation, which makes this an easy one to try if theatre in Korean usually keeps you away. Ticketed.

Oct 3-4 · Arko Arts Theater Main Hall · Performing Arts · Details →

Exhibitions

Exhibitions — A Reason to Go North to Dobong Before It Closes

If you keep meaning to see the Martin Parr show and haven't, the clock is now real. Martin Parr: We Are Martin Parr (마틴 파: We Are Martin Parr) at the Seoul Museum of Photography closes Oct 18 — and this holiday week is one of your last clean windows to catch it. It's a full survey of the Magnum photographer's work, free admission, in the city's dedicated photography museum. The catch, and the point, is the location: the museum sits up in Dobong-gu, on Seoul's northern edge, well off most residents' usual orbit. That distance is exactly why it's worth a deliberate trip rather than a "maybe I'll swing by." Go before Oct 18; after that it's gone.

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K-POP, Pop & Jazz

K-POP, Pop & Jazz — An Arena Encore Beside the Riverside Rock

The holiday weekend's biggest indoor draw is an encore. &TEAM Concert Tour: BLAZE THE WAY [Seoul Encore] (&TEAM CONCERT TOUR: BLAZE THE WAY [서울 앵콜]) lands at Olympic Park (KSPO Dome) in Songpa-gu on Oct 3-4 — two nights of the HYBE-affiliated group's arena tour, added on after the main run. The same weekend, the Let's Rock Festival is doing the opposite thing out on the grass at Nanji (in Top Picks above) — an all-day outdoor Korean-rock crowd versus a sealed, produced arena show. Between them you get the full shape of how large-scale live music happens in Seoul over a holiday. Both are ticketed and both move in advance.

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Classical, Gugak & Jazz

Classical, Gugak & Jazz — Where to Find Live Jazz After Dark in Seocho

For anyone whose idea of an autumn night out is a small room and a live band, Autumn in Jazz at Club Groove ([그루브재즈데이] Autumn in Jazz) is the standing option worth knowing. It's a monthly jazz-day series at Club Groove in Seocho-gu, running through October with this fall's edition featuring guests Wim Hoste and Chan Ha Kang. Tickets are a friendly 20,000 won — the opposite economics of an arena show, and roughly what you'd pay for two coffees to sit close to a working band. One thing to plan around: the October sessions fall on the evenings of Oct 15 and Oct 29 (8:00 pm), not during this first holiday week — so treat this as the thing you pencil in for later in the month rather than tonight. Groove is a genuine listening room rather than a bar with music in the corner, which makes it a good default for a low-key, no-language-barrier evening once the holiday rush is over.

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Performing Arts

Performing Arts — Dance on a Floating Stage on the Han

Of the three riverside events anchoring the week, the one that most rewards a deliberate trip is the free dance on the water at Banpo. The Hangang International Dance Festival — Welcome back Mr. Hamel (2026 한강국제무용축제 [돌아온 하멜]) stages contemporary dance on the open-air platform at Yebit Island in Banpo Han River Park (Seocho-gu) across Oct 1-3, with performances at 17:00, free. The setting is the pitch. Yebit Island is one of the artificial islets moored in the river, and a dance piece staged there at early evening — the light going, the water behind it, the city on both banks — is the kind of thing that only really works outdoors and in this window. Dance asks nothing of your Korean, and "free performance on a river stage at sunset" is an easy yes for a holiday evening. Time it toward the 17:00 start and you can pair it with a riverside walk; the light festival on Nodeul (in the cover above) is a short hop along the same river if you want to make an evening of the water.

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Sports

Sports — The Jamsil Derby to Close the Season

Baseball season is in its final stretch, and this week it comes home to Jamsil for a run of games that ends with a proper local derby. On Oct 7, LG vs Doosan (KBO regular season) at Jamsil Baseball Stadium (Songpa-gu, 6:30 pm) pits the two clubs who share the ballpark against each other — the closest thing the KBO has to a same-stadium rivalry, and a fitting near-finale as the regular season winds down. It caps a full home week at Jamsil: LG hosts KIA on Oct 5 and NC on Oct 6 before the Doosan game, so if you want a ballgame on almost any evening this week, the option is there. Baseball is one of the most frictionless nights out in the city for a non-Korean speaker — the stadium sits right on the subway, you buy a seat, you point at a beer, and the crowd does the rest. All ticketed; buy through the club site or a ticketing app. If you've never done a Korean ballgame, a season-closing derby is a good, loud first one.

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Festivals & Pop-ups

Festivals & Pop-ups — The Palaces Come Alive in Autumn

For a very different register from the riverside crowds, the season's big heritage event opens in the second half of the week. The 2026 Autumn Royal Culture Festival (2026 가을 궁중문화축전) runs Oct 7-11 across all five of Seoul's palaces — Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, Deoksugung, Changgyeonggung — and Jongmyo Shrine, a citywide program of royal-heritage performances, re-enactments and night programs set in the historic grounds. It's the kind of thing that's easy to enjoy without much Korean: processions, court-dress displays, night media-art in the palace courtyards, all in settings that carry themselves. Individual programs vary — some are free, some are paid, and specifics differ by palace and event — so check the official festival site for the schedule and any tickets before you go. Practically, this overlaps the tail of the holiday and spills into the following weekend, so it's the event to hold for after the first-weekend river crowds thin out.

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Changdeokgung Moonlight Tour (2026 창덕궁 달빛기행, 2nd half)

The standing experiences that are here beyond any single festival weekend — the ones that mostly don't need any Korean and reward a little planning. A good default when you want to show a visitor around, or just want an evening that isn't a screen.

A guided evening walk through Changdeokgung Palace by lantern light, running Thursdays through Sundays until Oct 17 — a rare chance to be inside a UNESCO-listed palace after dark, past Injeongjeon, Nakseonjae and the Buyongji pond, with a short traditional-arts performance and refreshments along the way. It costs 30,000 won per person and, crucially, seats are allocated by lottery through Ticketlink (a Korean-language platform), so this is a plan-well-ahead experience, not a walk-up — enter the draw before you count on going. The most atmospheric palace night in the city while the autumn run lasts.