Cover Story · 2026 W41

Hangeul Day, and a City That Switches On — Five Days When Palaces, River and Square Open at Once

tripleS World Tour: ANDLESS [Seoul] (tripleS World Tour: ANDLESS)

Jangchung Arena, Oct 10-11, 6:00 pm both nights. The 24-member K-pop group brings its world tour home for two holiday-weekend shows in a mid-size arena near Dongguk University Station. If you follow the group, this is the weekend anchor; if you don't, it's a chance to see one of K-pop's larger-scale acts in a room smaller than a stadium. Ticketed through Korean-language platforms, so sort your seat before the weekend.

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PENTAGON 10th Anniversary Tour: 101010 (PENTAGON 10th Anniversary Tour: 101010 [서울])

Blue Square, Yongsan-gu, Oct 9-10. The group marks ten years with two anniversary shows in Itaewon's big theatre complex — a milestone date for a second-generation act. Worth flagging honestly: these have been running sold out, so plan on chasing returns rather than counting on same-day tickets. Booking is through Korean-language platforms.

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10CM Fan Concert: The Missing Tracks (10CM FAN CONCERT: THE MISSING TRACKS, CASE No.1009)

Olympic Hall, Olympic Park, Songpa-gu, Oct 9. The much-loved indie-pop act opens a three-night fan-concert run on Hangeul Day itself, in the hall inside Olympic Park (not to be confused with the KSPO Dome elsewhere in the same park). A warmer, song-first show than the arena acts this week. Ticketed through Korean-language platforms.

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Hans Zimmer Film Music Concert — Seoul Encore (한스 짐머 영화음악 콘서트 [서울 앵콜])

Seoul Arts Center, Seocho-gu, Oct 9. An encore evening of the film-composer's scores — Gladiator, Interstellar, The Dark Knight and more — on Hangeul Day. It's instrumental, so there's no language barrier at all, which makes it one of the easiest sells of the week for a holiday-night outing. Ticketed; book ahead.

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National Dance Company of Korea — Double Bill: Sinawi (국립무용단 [더블빌:시나위])

Haeoreum Grand Theater, National Theater of Korea, Jung-gu, Oct 8-11. A new repertory work from the national dance company, straddling the holiday weekend. Dance travels without translation, and this is the serious, state-company end of the week's offerings — in a major house on the slope below Namsan. Clear pricing, too: VIP 70,000 / R 50,000 / S 30,000 / A 20,000 won, booked through a site with an English path.

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cero, Contemporary Seoul Cruise (cero, Contemporary Seoul Cruise)

KT&G Sangsangmadang Live Hall, Mapo-gu, Oct 10. The Japanese city-pop/indie band plays a standing show in Hongdae — a rare Seoul date for an act with a devoted following here. A good-sized club night in a neighborhood a lot of residents already know, and music that needs no Korean. Ticketed through Korean-language platforms.

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T-Square Live in Seoul — First Solo Concert in 7 Years (티스퀘어 라이브 인 서울)

Yonsei University Grand Auditorium, Seodaemun-gu, Oct 11. The veteran Japanese jazz-fusion band returns for its first solo Seoul show in seven years, with a new five-piece lineup. Instrumental and groove-driven — no language barrier — in a university hall near Sinchon. Ticketed through Korean-language platforms; book ahead.

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26th SPAF — Fleur Alice Noble: Her Two-Dimensional Life (제26회 SPAF, 플뢰르 앨리스 노블: 그녀의 2차원적 삶)

Daehangno Theater Quad (Seoul Art Space), Jongno-gu, Oct 10-11. A visual-theatre / multidisciplinary piece in the international SPAF festival (more on SPAF in the Performing Arts deep dive below). Image-led rather than text-led, which lowers the language barrier compared with spoken theatre, and a chance to catch the more experimental edge of the festival in a compact venue. Ticketed through Korean-language platforms.

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Performing Arts

Performing Arts — The Week a Han Kang Novel Takes the Stage

The country's biggest international performing-arts festival, SPAF (Seoul Performing Arts Festival), runs through its 26th edition this week, and its centrepiece is a quiet landmark worth understanding even if you never book a seat. 26th SPAF: Han Kang, Julie Deliquet, Isabelle Huppert and Lee Hye-young — Bird (제26회 SPAF: 한강, 줄리 델리케, 이자벨 위페르 그리고 이혜영: 새) plays Sogang University's Mary Hall on Oct 10-11: a stage adaptation of a Han Kang novel, directed by the French director Julie Deliquet, performed by a cast that pairs France's Isabelle Huppert with Korea's Lee Hye-young. It premiered at the Avignon festival before arriving here.

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Classical, Gugak & Jazz

Classical, Gugak & Jazz — Every Seat 10,000 Won, a National Showcase of Korean Orchestras

If the price of a concert ticket is what usually keeps you from trying something unfamiliar, this is the week that removes the excuse. The Korean Traditional Orchestra Festival 2026 (2026 대한민국국악관현악축제) runs a run of concerts at Sejong M Theater in the center of the city, and every seat at every show is 10,000 won — flat. For roughly the price of a couple of coffees you can sit in a proper concert hall and hear a full gugak (Korean traditional) orchestra.

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Exhibitions

Exhibitions — The Museum That Opens on the Holiday and Stays All Season

Most of this week's events are five-day affairs — here one evening, gone the next. An exhibition is the opposite kind of plan, and this week a good one opens on Hangeul Day and then stays open for the better part of a year. SOMA Museum: MMCA Art Bank Collection — Gunnak: Six Courtyards (《군락: 여섯 개의 뜰》) opens Oct 9 at the SOMA Museum (Building 2) in Songpa-gu and runs all the way to May 30, 2027 — a curated show drawn from the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art's art-bank holdings.

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K-POP, Pop & Jazz

K-POP, Pop & Jazz — Three Holiday Nights When the Park Becomes a Concert Venue

Across the same three days, Olympic Park in Songpa-gu turns into one of the city's busiest concert grounds — and the clearest way to read it is through one act. AKMU Concert: Paradise of Rumors (AKMU CONCERT: 소문의 낙원) runs Oct 9-11 at the KSPO Dome inside the park: three nights of a concept show from the sibling duo, and it's sold out. That it sold out is itself the story.

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Sports

Sports — Autumn Baseball at Jamsil as the Regular Season Runs Out

The KBO regular season is in its final days — it wraps on Oct 12 — and the standings are still being settled, which makes this a good week to catch a ballgame with something riding on it. The holiday window closes with Doosan vs Lotte (두산 vs 롯데) at Jamsil Baseball Stadium (Songpa-gu) on Oct 12 at 6:30 pm, one of the last regular-season games on the calendar.

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Festivals & Pop-ups

Festivals & Pop-ups — Beyond the Palaces: the District Festivals Around the Edges

If the cover looks at the floodlit center — the palaces, the river, the square — this is the holiday happening at the city's edges, where Seoul's districts run their own neighborhood festivals on the same days. They're almost all free, outdoors, and family-friendly, and they're a different, lower-key way to spend the weekend than fighting the downtown crowds.

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Seoul Hanok Week 2026 (2026 서울한옥위크)

A free, city-run week of hanok (traditional house) experiences across the Bukchon and Seochon neighborhoods in Jongno-gu, through Oct 11 — roughly 82 programs set in and around the old wooden houses, from craft workshops to open-house visits, on the theme of "everyday hanok living." Most programs run on advance reservation and are free, and the official site carries English guidance for visitors, so it's genuinely navigable without Korean — book the slots you want before you go rather than walking up. It pairs with the rest of the week's heritage programming: the Autumn Royal Culture Festival opens all five palaces nearby (Oct 7-11), and the National Hangeul Museum's Hangeul Day activities run on Oct 9 (outdoors this year, at the Yongsan Park site, as the museum building is closed for repairs until 2028). Walk Bukchon and Seochon on foot and you can thread several of these together in a single afternoon. Official