The Sejong City Culture and Tourism Foundation (CEO Park Young-kook) announced that it will host the "2026 Sejong Hangeul Festival" for three days from October 9 to 11, coinciding with Hangeul Day, across the Sejong Lake Park and Sejong Central Park areas.

This year's festival marks the first time it is being held since being designated as a "2026–2027 Cultural Tourism Festival" by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism last January. Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Hangeul Day and the 580th anniversary of the promulgation of Hunminjeongeum, a total of 82 programs—including 40 major programs and 42 affiliated events spanning performances, exhibitions, and hands-on activities—have been organized. The Foundation projects that 33,000 visitors will attend this year.

Establishing Identity as a Cultural Tourism Festival and Spatial Reorganization

Last year, the Sejong Hangeul Festival changed its name from the "Sejong Festival" to the "Sejong Hangeul Festival," bringing Hangeul to the forefront as the core identity of the event. As a result, visitor numbers surged by 54.1% from 204,000 in 2024 to approximately 315,000 in 2025, representing an 86.7% increase compared to 2022. Recognizing this growth trajectory and its distinctiveness centered on Hangeul culture, the festival was designated as a Cultural Tourism Festival, securing 40 million KRW in annual national funding and domestic and international PR and marketing support from the Korea Tourism Organization.

To safely accommodate the growing number of visitors, this year's main stage has been relocated from the Central Plaza at Sejong Lake Park to the Urban Festival Plaza at Sejong Central Park. Daytime activities, such as children's/family experiences and citizen performances, will be concentrated at Sejong Lake Park, while large-scale performances and drone/fireworks displays will light up Sejong Central Park at night to disperse crowds. The opening ceremony will be structured around visitor-centric performances without separate protocol events. Operating hours are from 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM on October 9 and 10, and from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM on October 11.

A Cultural Platform Integrating the City’s Hangeul Cultural Resources and Capacity

This year’s festival operates as a "platform-type festival" where the Foundation provides the foundational systems, safety management, spatial configuration, and integrated promotion, while various entities within the city fill it with content. Government and regional institutions—such as 9 departments of Sejong City, 5 teams of the Foundation, the Office of Education, and the National Sejong Arboretum—have unified 42 previously independent Hangeul education, experience, exhibition, and academic events into the festival grounds. Visitors can enjoy Hangeul AI academic talk shows and pop-up stores by Hangeul-related organizations within a single festival route.

A co-prosperity stage created by the public, private sectors, academia, and local commercial districts has also been prepared. The local resident art troupe "Andamiro Art Company" and the local arts group "Flute City" will lead the opening and closing stages, while a K-dance performance organized by the Sejong Street Dance Association will greet audiences on the evening of October 10. On October 9 and 10, concerts by 16 street artist teams will take place, followed on the afternoon of October 11 by performances from 5 citizen teams featuring cheering, classical music, jazz, and street theater, filling the Lake Park Floating Stage Island with collaborative performances by citizens and artists. In addition, 7 citizen-planned programs selected through a public contest, 15 Hangeul creative experience programs developed in collaboration with Hongik University, and a newly introduced children's space called "Hangeul Playground" (located in the Green Field of Sejong Lake Park) will welcome family visitors.

On October 10, the nighttime reading culture event "2026 Hangeul Firefly Jiphyunjeon" will be held in connection with the festival around the Sejong Arts Center and Urban Symbols Plaza. Centered on the theme "Hangeul, Reading Through the Night with Light," it will feature the book talk concert "Geulpungryu Madang" with novelist Cheon Myeong-kwan, translator Deborah Smith, and lyricist Kim Eana.

The warmth of the festival extends beyond the festival grounds. The Foundation is collaborating with 50 restaurants, cafes, and "Sejong Love Restaurants" within a 1-kilometer radius to promote the event in advance and guide visitors to surrounding commercial areas. Food trucks have been increased from 15 last year to 37, and a new motorized wheelchair rental service is being operated. To assist foreign visitors, international promotional campaigns are underway in collaboration with the King Sejong Institute Foundation and the Korea.net Honorary Reporters of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, alongside multi-language translations applied to the festival website.

100th Anniversary Commemorative Events of Hangeul Day and Evolution of Content Identity

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the establishment of "Gagyanal," the origin of Hangeul Day, designated by the Chosun Language Research Society (now the The The Linguistic Society of Korea) in 1926. The Foundation has designed the opening day of the festival, Hangeul Day, as a day of 100th-anniversary commemoration.

The morning of October 9 kicks off with a civilian-participatory "Hangeul Run" and a celebratory performance, followed at noon by an aerobatic flight by the Air Force's special aerobatic team, the Black Eagles, over Sejong Central Park. The celebratory performance will feature the group @heart, presenting a modern K-pop reinterpretations of Cheonggu Yeongon, the earliest collection of Hangeul lyrics. Following the afternoon "Hangeul Song Contest," the evening will feature a thematic performance by the National Jeongdong Theater, culminating in the "Hangeul Drone Grand Spectacle" painting Hangeul across the night sky of Sejong at 8:40 PM.

On October 10, performances of "Great Taekwondo" and "K-Dance, Sejong" will lead into the "Hangeul Fireworks Grand Spectacle." On the final day, October 11, events will include "Ring the Golden Bell!" and the parade performance "Alice in Hangeul Land," followed by the National Symphony Orchestra (KNCO) taking charge of the closing performance.

Programs expanding Hangeul into today's art and tomorrow's content will also be showcased. The Hangeul Cultural Special Exhibition "Sejong and Nam June," connecting King Sejong—who created Hangeul—and video art pioneer Nam June Paik, will run until November 8 at the Sejong Central Park Biennale Exhibition Hall. Collaborating with the Nam June Paik Art Center, the National Hangeul Museum, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, and the Sejong the Great Memorial Society, this exhibition serves as a stepping stone toward the 2027 Sejong Hangeul Biennale. Furthermore, contents combining artificial intelligence and digital video, such as the "Hangeul AI Video Contest" and "Hangeul AI Talk Show," have been introduced for the first time this year.

CEO Park Young-kook stated, "Carrying forward the spirit of those who first established Hangeul Day 100 years ago, Sejong City—bearing the name of King Sejong—has carefully prepared a birthday feast to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Hangeul Day." He emphasized, "Starting this year as we take our first step as a Cultural Tourism Festival, we will foster the Sejong Hangeul Festival into a representative cultural brand of South Korea and a global Hangeul cultural festival that people from all over the world will visit, so that the phrase 'On Hangeul Day, it's the Hangeul Festival' naturally comes to mind, embodying the dignity and citywide capacity befitting Sejong, the future administrative capital."

Detailed programs can be found on the festival website (sjfestival.kr) and Instagram (@sjcf_festival).

[Copyright (c) Global Economic Times. All Rights Reserved.]