Korea Now: Seoul Events, K-pop & Local Guide | NowHitz · 18

Seoul 2001, Busan 2024

A photograph taken in Seoul in 2001 shows a row of booths with bright yellow curtains. People wait or look over their pictures outside, and sample layouts cover the machines. A Busan archive photograph produced in 2024 shows people standing beneath a high-mounted camera, posing around the room.

The older picture, taken on 19 July 2001, is an actual photograph, not a reconstruction of the 1990s. The Busan archive lists its material as produced in October 2024; it does not show the shop as it is in 2026. The two images come from different locations.

2,000 won in 1997

Electronic Times reported in 1997 that imported Japanese sticker-photo machines arrived in Korea in 1995. Its 22 November article described paying 2,000 won, choosing a celebrity or character background and receiving a sticker in about 30 seconds. Those figures reflect the report at the time.

Friends stepped into a chosen setting together and walked away with something they could hold. Looking at the screen together and waiting for the print were part of the fun.

Pictures in diaries

Seoul’s Museum of Everyday Life holds a 1999 diary, object 001075, donated by Kim Hye-rim. The museum’s description records friends sharing sticker photographs and decorating their diaries with them.

Koreana’s Autumn 2023 issue also recalls cutting adhesive photo sheets into individual pictures, keeping them in wallets and diaries, and scanning some for Cyworld. Paper photos and online sharing overlapped early on.

Stickers and four-cut layouts

The samples on the 2001 booths gather small pictures in several layouts. A close-up of the modern Cheongsapo print shows two matching sheets, each arranging four pictures in a two-by-two grid. A four-cut photo is not always a narrow vertical strip.

Frame size, the gaps between pictures, border colour and the position of text all shape how the expressions read as a sequence. The modern photograph does not show whether the paper has an adhesive backing. “Sticker” describes a material and “four-cut” a layout, so the terms are not interchangeable.

From backgrounds to props and poses

Elaborate backgrounds were a feature of early sticker photos. A Donga report dated 8 February 1999 described movie-poster and magazine-cover backgrounds and machines for upper-body and full-body shots. Varied poses and framing are not new.

In the Cheongsapo archive, shelves hold headbands, hats and glasses, and another image shows people turning their arms and bodies beneath a high camera. The machine carries CODE lettering and the print PHOTO SIGNATURE branding. The archive’s generic “인생네컷체험” title does not identify either as a Life4Cuts outlet.

QR downloads

Life4Cuts’ official site includes app, frame, pose and QR guides. According to its QR instructions, customers select the option when shooting, then scan the printed code to download the image and a video of the session. The posted download window is three days including the shooting date; other operators may set different terms.

A print keeps the chosen expressions; a video keeps the movement in between. Anyone posting faces or video of others should ask those pictured first.

Before the shoot

Planning a simple sequence — an everyday expression first, a glance at each other second, the same hand gesture third and a free choice last — makes the differences between frames easier to see. Props work best when they leave faces visible.

Frames, camera angles, number of copies, prices, QR options and extra prints vary by shop and machine, so the screen in front of you is the reliable guide. Props go back on the shelf afterwards, and nearby customers should be kept out of the frame.

A picture to keep

What links the 2001 booths and the 2024 prints is not a machine or a design but the short time spent looking at a screen together, choosing expressions and dividing the results. A sticker in a diary and a four-cut sheet with its digital file are two ways of returning to that moment.

Every photograph here is real and dated. The sample layouts are part of the original booth scene, not newly scanned personal sticker prints from the 1990s. The 1999 diary is described through the museum’s text because reuse permission for its image could not be established.

Old bookshops, new zines

The festival links Baedari’s used-book shops, independent bookstores and Changyeong Elementary School. The main market occupies the school gym and forecourt, with programmes spreading into nearby shops. Bangkok’s SPACEBAR ZINE works with Jiphyeonjeon, and singer-songwriter and illustrator wadfah with Nabinalda Bookshop.

A zine is a small independent publication built around a maker’s own interests. The programme ties together choosing old books, photographing the street and cutting paper into a publication.

Jiphyeonjeon and SPACEBAR ZINE

According to Incheon’s 2022 historical account, the street grew from mobile booksellers who gathered after the Korean War, and Jiphyeonjeon began selling books in 1953. This weekend it hosts the SPACEBAR ZINE collaboration from 1–6 p.m. on both days.

SPACEBAR says it has produced more than 100 zines and art books with Thai and Asian artists and has taken part in fairs including Tokyo and Seoul. Its Independent Print Club in Bangkok combines retail with a gallery, mini-library and workshops.

Wiew’s zine consultation runs from 10–11:30 a.m. on each day on Jiphyeonjeon’s third floor and costs KRW15,000. Participants may bring works in progress or come without an idea. The session is in English with interpretation and starts before the festival’s general 11 a.m. opening. On October 12 its page showed a purchase button without a SOLDOUT label; the number of remaining seats was not confirmed.

Wadfah at Nabinalda

Wadfah’s work moves between music, illustration and video. The organizer says she made a 2025 zine with Supersonic Studio recording things she noticed in Seoul. Her Baedari workshop applies the same method: participants walk the neighbourhood, take photographs, then return to Nabinalda to turn them into drawings for a small book.

The photograph serves as a working note; redrawing it means choosing what to keep and what to leave out.

Nabinalda’s collaboration is listed for 11 a.m.–4 p.m. on both days. The separate paid English-language workshop on October 18, 4–6 p.m., showed SOLDOUT when checked at 8:44 p.m. KST on October 12. That label applies only to the class.

Other programmes

Jeju-based duo Logout Island’s blueprint workshop combines prepared words and images, prints them by cyanotype and folds the result into an eight-page zine. The October 17 session at Abel Bookstore also showed SOLDOUT.

The programme also lists an open zine-making table with paper, glue, scissors and old magazines. Shin Jisu’s CUT-OUT NARRATIVE exhibition reworks images cut from books found in Baedari into paintings. Times and charges for individual activities are set by the organizer.

Visitor information

General festival hours are 11 a.m.–6 p.m. on October 17–18, across Patchwork, Changyeong Elementary School and the bookshop district. The Jiphyeonjeon consultation is at 3-1 Geumgok-ro, Jemulpo-gu, Incheon, third floor; wadfah’s workshop is at Nabinalda, 35 Ugak-ro 15beon-gil in the same district. Individual sessions keep different hours.

VISITKOREA lists free access to the street, with purchases charged and shop hours varying; not every festival programme is free. Parking is limited, and public transport is recommended. Language support varies by programme. Japanese interpretation and lift access to Jiphyeonjeon’s third floor were not confirmed.

Information was checked on October 12, 2026, at 8:44 p.m. KST. The photographs are KTO archive images taken in March 2019 and October 2023, not scenes from this year’s festival.

A shop between school and home

A munbanggu supplied school materials as well as playthings. In the National Folk Museum’s reconstruction of a Seoul neighbourhood in the 1970s and 1980s, the Hyeondae stationery shop displays magnetic pencil cases and insect-collecting tools alongside ddakji, paper dolls and snacks. Study and play shared the same shelves.

The reconstruction does not represent every Korean neighbourhood, but it offers a way to examine school-front shop culture of the 1980s and 1990s through objects and what children did with them.

Supplies and playthings

Buying a notebook or a classroom tool served a different purpose from choosing a toy, but at a stationery shop the two happened in the same space. Looking for something needed meant seeing and comparing things wanted. An errand for the next lesson could also bring break time and after-school play to mind.

Dooly Museum’s 2024 programme accompanying its stationery-shop exhibition covered 1980s–1990s stationery history alongside character merchandise, yo-yos and ddakji. Pictures, characters and friends’ games also shaped how children chose ordinary school items.

Ddakji

Ddakji tiles can be folded from layers of paper or cut from printed sheets. In the basic game described by the National Folk Museum, a player strikes beside an opponent’s tile on the ground with their own. A flipped tile is won; a miss passes the turn. Where to strike and how thick to fold the tile affect the outcome.

The game was not invented in the 1980s. The museum points to a newspaper reference from 1924. The shop brought an older game to children in new materials and commercial versions.

Marbles

Marble games were not limited to flicking one marble at another. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture records games involving marbles inside circles or triangles and games using holes dug in the ground. A familiar rule in one neighbourhood could be unknown in the next.

Players therefore had to agree on boundaries, turns and what counted as success before starting. The same marbles became a game only through that agreement.

Gonggi

In gonggi, a player tosses one piece, gathers pieces from the ground and catches the falling piece. The number picked up defines each stage; touching another piece or missing the catch passes the turn. The eyes follow the airborne piece while the hand works below.

The names vary by region. The encyclopedia records jjagebatgi in Gyeongbuk and salgu in Gyeongnam. The photograph here shows actual stones, not manufactured plastic pieces. Children played with materials found close at hand long before shops sold sets.

Old games, new merchandise

Grouping folded paper tiles, glass marbles and character stationery together as “old things” hides their differences. Making something, choosing something to own and competing with friends using the same equipment were distinct pleasures, and school-front shop culture brought them together.

There is no basis for assigning a game permanently to boys or girls, or for assuming every child bought the same things. Memories differed according to what each child could obtain and who they played with.

How the shops changed

Smartphones alone do not explain the decline of these shops. In a 2019 support announcement, Busan Metropolitan City cited fewer pupils, schools buying classroom supplies in bulk, and spending shifting to large retailers and online stores. That was the city’s assessment at the time, not a count of shops across Korea today.

The accompanying 2015 photograph of a Gwacheon shop shows real shelves and a counter. It records that moment; whether the business still operates was not checked. Anyone trying ddakji or gonggi today quickly finds that players know different rules.

Busan, 1991

The Royal electronic arcade near Dong-A University in Busan, in April 1991, is often cited as the starting point. A 2018 Kookje Shinmun history noted, however, that no official record establishing the “first” had been confirmed. It is more accurate to treat that period as the moment a new business format appeared in Busan than as a fixed invention date.

A 2016 study by Sangkil Yoon and Il Chang examines how Busan’s existing 1980s karaoke culture related to early-1990s rooms using computer accompaniment. Noraebang combined established singing culture, arcade-style use and separate rooms.

The merchants who wired the rooms

Seoul Museum of History’s 2010 survey of downtown merchants says noraebang spread from Busan and the Yeongnam region to Seoul in late 1991. Synchronising accompaniment with captions and producing adequate sound were early technical challenges, and merchants in Sewoon’s electronics district supplied and installed the equipment.

Customers saw a microphone and screen, but a working room required an accompaniment unit, amplifier and other equipment to be connected. Behind the loosely named “karaoke machine” sat several audio devices and the skill to install them.

Songbooks and remotes

Number-based selection meant finding a title in a songbook and entering its number into the machine. A registered patent aimed at improving songbook selection describes this procedure. When the person choosing a song is not the person singing, selection and listening happen at the same time in the same room.

On a remote, reservation queues the next song, key changes pitch and tempo changes speed. The buttons are visible in the accompanying 2008 photograph of a Kumyoung remote, and Kumyoung’s current IPTV service information also lists key and tempo controls and a song queue. The photograph does not show the features of a 1991 machine.

Changing electronics

Treating noraebang as purely analog because of its books and buttons obscures its technology. TJ’s corporate history records a home computer-accompaniment product in 1989, and hard-disk video accompaniment and an internet-connected system in 2002.

A 1995 Electronic Times report on an Inkel product already described remote control, lighting control and the option to use external laserdisc or videotape footage as a background. The buttons stayed familiar while the electronics behind them kept changing.

The audience in the room

A door and walls matter as much as the microphone. In a separate room, the audience is the people who came in together. Choosing songs, waiting and responding to others are part of the experience alongside singing ability.

The room is not comfortable for everyone. The pleasure of singing together can come with self-consciousness. Who is present and who sets the order explain more than the claim that Koreans simply love to sing.

In the accompanying 2014 Gwangju photograph, people holding a microphone and a remote share a sofa, singing and selecting songs in the same room.

Coin noraebang

Coin karaoke is not simply a smaller version of the old room. Sharing a room by the hour and dropping in for a set number of songs use time differently. Reporting from Suyeong-gu in Busan in 2018, Kookje Shinmun documented customers arriving alone to sing. Solo singing is not a sudden new trend.

Nor has individual use replaced groups. A room for socialising and a room for practising alone meet different needs.

The 2006 photograph shows small singing booths inside a games arcade, a different format from the dedicated coin-noraebang shops of the 2010s.

Noraebang today

Official information for TJ’s A3 describes app-based song search and queuing, access to recordings, and coin or time-based management. That shows what the system can do, not what every business has installed. Song selection once done by flipping through songbooks continues through other interfaces.

Rooms vary as well. A 2023 Korea Tourism Organization feature describes a Hongdae venue whose front rooms are visible from the street through full-height windows. Buttons and screens have changed, but choosing the next song is still at the centre of the experience.

The festival and the cookbook

Banchandeungsok puts fish in cubed-radish kimchi, egg and chilli strips on rice cakes and dried persimmons in honey water for sujeonggwa. The names are familiar; the ingredients and methods are not.

In its 12 October announcement, Cheongju City scheduled the 2026 Cheongju Food and Drink Festa for 31 October–1 November at the Culture Factory lawn plaza, with cooking inspired by Banchandeungsok and a traditional refreshment-table experience. The historical dishes below illustrate the book; they have not been confirmed as workshop menus.

Sweets and drinks in a side-dish book

The National Folk Museum of Korea describes Banchandeungsok as a Korean-language cookbook from early-20th-century Cheongju, dated to 1913 from its cyclical-year notation, place name and writing conventions. The Sangsin-ri place name on its back cover ties the manuscript to a particular locality.

Its 46 recipes cover kimchi and preserved foods as well as rice cakes, sweets, drinks and alcohol. A separate vocabulary section records words for household goods and wedding items. As a single household’s record, it does not describe what every Cheongju resident ate.

Kkakdugi with croaker

The Korean Food Promotion Institute describes modern kkakdugi as salted, diced radish mixed with chilli powder, salted shrimp, scallions and garlic. A 2015 study published by the East Asian Society of Dietary Life describes the book’s version as brined radish with chopped chilli, ginger and croaker. The fish is the main difference.

The same paper finds garlic, chilli and chopped croaker in the manuscript’s cucumber kimchi. Modern kimchi varies between households, so this compares particular documented examples. The accompanying kimchi photographs show modern dishes.

A rice cake with egg and chilli

The National Folk Museum describes injeolmi as steamed glutinous rice, pounded and coated with soybean powder.

In a Korean Food Promotion Institute interview, reconstruction researcher Ji Myeong-sun describes the book’s hwabyeong as injeolmi topped with fine strips of cooked egg and chilli and green soybean powder, a more elaborate look than many would expect of an old rice cake. The photographed soybean-coated injeolmi is a comparison image, not a reconstruction of hwabyeong.

Sujeonggwa without cinnamon

The National Folk Museum describes today’s sujeonggwa as a ginger-and-cinnamon infusion sweetened with honey or sugar and served with dried persimmons.

Ji’s account of the historical version describes dried persimmons steeped overnight in honey water instead. Boiling spices for aroma and steeping fruit are different methods under the same name. This is a historical description, not a home recipe with quantities and storage instructions. The photographed drink has not been identified as a reconstruction of the manuscript recipe.

Buckwheat dumpling wrappers

According to the Traditional Culture Portal, Banchandeungsok’s dumplings use buckwheat-flour wrappers filled with meat, cabbage and soybean pulp, then boiled. The National Folk Museum’s description of mandutguk, or dumpling soup, uses wheat-flour wrappers and tofu. Soybean pulp and tofu are distinct ingredients.

The photographs of steamed mandu and yakgwa illustrate Korean food culture generally. They do not show the book’s buckwheat dumplings or the festival’s refreshment table.

Festival details

The festival’s theme celebrates food and drink made in Cheongju. The city lists Cheongju-style samgyeopsal pork belly, jjageuli stew, local restaurants, traditional alcohol and craft beer, along with tastings and an evaluation event for traditional drinks.

The dates are Saturday 31 October and Sunday 1 November 2026, at the Culture Factory lawn plaza, 314 Sangdang-ro, Cheongwon-gu, Cheongju. The 12 October announcement did not give each activity’s dishes, session times, booking method or charges; the city’s official updates will carry those details.

Getting connected

A typical 1990s dial-up session began by opening communications software on a PC and using a modem to call an access number. Once the link connected, users entered their service ID and password before reaching boards and chat rooms. Dedicated terminals offered another route, so not every user owned a PC or a separate modem.

KETEL, HiTEL’s predecessor, began at the Korea Economic Daily in September 1988. KT alpha’s corporate history dates the start of the HiTEL service to July 1992. Chollian, Nownuri and UniTEL were other leading services, each with its own menus and member spaces.

The modem’s noise

A modem converted digital computer data into signals that could travel over a voice telephone line and turned incoming signals back into data. The tones heard while connecting came from the “handshake,” in which the two ends agreed on a compatible method and speed.

ATDT, a command seen in communications software, told a modem to tone-dial a number. Software often issued it automatically. The modem, line, program and service account each did a different job.

On the rear-panel photograph, RS-232 connects to the computer, LINE to the telephone line and PHONE to the telephone. A PHONE socket did not allow voice and data calls at the same time. As the GoldStar GSM-2400 photograph shows, external modems used front-panel lights to show their status.

The home phone and the bill

With ordinary dial-up on the same line as the household telephone, the line could not carry a voice call while connected. If someone needed the phone, the session had to end; households with a separate line faced different constraints.

Service subscriptions and telephone charges were separate, and costs varied by period, provider and plan. A KISDI historical study identifies phone costs and unstable connections as constraints on early online communities. That is why users chose carefully what to read and send rather than staying online indefinitely.

Boards, chat and file libraries

In text-based interfaces, users navigated with menu numbers and commands; HiTEL offered shortcuts such as “go culture” for cultural and leisure information. The familiar blue background and white lettering did not appear in every program and period, and graphical and web functions later changed the experience.

Bulletin boards held posts for later readers, chat rooms connected people online at the same time, mail went to a particular recipient and file libraries distributed downloads. A computer textbook’s Chollian 98 chapter, catalogued by the National Library of Korea, treats these as separate functions.

Clubs and sysops

Interest clubs, or donghohoe, devoted to music, games or fiction gave members a reason to return. Through repeated posts and replies, an unfamiliar ID could become a familiar person.

Moderators known as sysops maintained rules and could sanction disruptive members. Bae Young’s 2005 study describes lasting, partly pseudonymous relationships in these clubs while noting paid membership and other barriers. The communities were close-knit but not open to everyone.

Online fiction and viewer feedback

Lee Woohyeok’s Toemarok, listed in English by LTI Korea as A Record of Exorcism, was serialised on HiTEL in 1993 and published as a book in 1994. Lee Young-do’s Dragon Raja began its HiTEL serialisation in October 1997. Readers waited for each instalment and posted responses, and authors saw that feedback quickly, a defining feature of PC-network literature.

Broadcasters used the channel too. The April 1996 issue of SBS Magazine reported that the company had consolidated its PC-network viewer-contact operations into one department that March, giving viewers a route to send opinions to producers.

PC networks and the internet

The two eras overlapped. HiTEL introduced web services and dedicated multimedia software in 1996, and provider-hosted boards, internet access and web interfaces evolved alongside one another.

The old equipment may look analogue, but the computers were exchanging digital information. The modem bridged that data and the voice telephone line.

A present-day reading: how relationships work

Today’s interest communities face the same questions. Who organises the conversation and enforces its rules? How does a regular contributor earn trust? How does a reader waiting for the next instalment reach its creator? Equipment and speeds have changed; the questions have not.

Phone bills and connection limits were real burdens, and easier access today creates more choices. The history of PC networks is less a story of better times than of how people built connections and turned them into relationships.

What dinol means

“Dinol” combines the Korean shorthand for digital camera with the word for play. In February 2026, Yonhap described camera outings and people decorating their cameras with stickers.

Friends meet with a small camera in a bag and set themselves simple tasks, such as photographing only red objects or each choosing one picture of the same scene. Meeting, choosing and showing pictures become part of taking them.

What the 6.4-times figure covers

On October 9, Maeil Business reported that ZIGZAG’s digital-camera transaction value rose 540% in January–September 2026 from the same period in 2025, or 6.4 times the earlier amount. A separate figure in the report, 63% of September purchasers aged 29 or younger, came from ABLY.

Transaction value is not units sold, and prices and product mix affect it. The figures do not show that the whole vintage secondhand-camera market grew 6.4 times. Newly made retro-style cameras also need separating from genuinely old devices. The companies’ original data were not directly verified.

From new technology to vintage

Casio’s official timeline dates the QV-10 to March 1995. Its key features were reviewing pictures on an LCD and sending them to a television or computer, a new way to handle photographs at the time.

Canon’s October 2003 PowerShot A80 paired a roughly four-megapixel CCD with an articulated LCD. Each camera had its own handling. For some users these are remembered objects; for others they are unfamiliar pieces of design.

CCDs and colour

Not every old digital camera uses a CCD. Canon’s May 2010 IXUS 300 HS used a ten-megapixel back-illuminated CMOS sensor and DIGIC 4 processor. It was sold as the PowerShot SD4000 IS DIGITAL ELPH in North America and the IXY 30S in Japan, so different listing names can describe the same model.

Colour depends on more than the sensor. Nikon’s manual explains that lighting changes apparent colour and white balance compensates for it. Whatever the “film-like” impression, a CCD camera does not capture images the way film does; the A80 records digital JPEG files.

Noise and smear

Sony’s ISO guide explains that higher sensitivity allows faster shutter speeds in low light but can add noise or reduce sharpness. A rough-looking picture may reflect movement, focus, lighting or settings rather than a sensor’s character.

Sony’s DSC-W800 help page describes CCD smear, vertical streaks around intense light sources. According to that guidance, it generally does not appear in still photographs but may affect movies or panoramas. Pointing the camera directly at the sun or another strong light to produce the effect should be avoided.

Batteries and memory cards

Power and storage vary by model. Canon specifies four AA alkaline or rechargeable NiMH batteries and CompactFlash Type I for the A80. The IXUS 300 HS uses an NB-6L battery and SD, SDHC or SDXC cards. Similar-looking bodies do not guarantee compatible cards or chargers.

Sony’s DSC-W1 manual sets out Memory Stick and adapter requirements and warns that its supplied charger is only for specified Sony NiMH batteries; alkaline cells must not be charged. A USB socket does not mean USB charging. Testing shooting, playback and file transfer before an outing avoids surprises.

A ten-picture walk

A NowHitz suggestion: if a camera you already own works, take ten pictures close to home before buying another, one in sunlight and one in shade, starting on automatic and comparing the results. Ask before photographing or sharing anyone’s face.

Transferring the files at home and choosing one picture each is part of the outing. Image quality need not be the reason to use an old camera; the appeal is remembering an afternoon together at a different pace.

The programme

The programme, titled ‘한복, 선(線)을 넘다’, a play on the lines of hanbok and the idea of crossing a line, runs from 19 to 25 October 2026 at Hannam University Central Museum. It looks beyond colour and silhouette to details such as hem length, cuffs and side openings that reveal how a garment was used.

Exhibitions, talks, a workshop and a design contest are linked as looking, reading, knotting and drawing. The university says the programme is open to everyone, including Daejeon residents and international students.

The dangui exhibition

The exhibition focuses on dangui. The National Folk Museum of Korea describes it as a ceremonial upper garment worn by Joseon-period women on less elaborate formal occasions, including court ceremonies. It is longer than an ordinary jeogori jacket, with open sides, a rounded hem and white trim at the cuffs.

The exhibition shows how materials and construction varied by season and how those choices affect line and colour. The archival photographs accompanying this article illustrate dress traditions and are not objects in the exhibition.

Exhibition and talks

The exhibition is in the Traditional Life Room of the Central Museum, on the fourth floor of Insarye Liberal Arts Building (campus building 11), 70 Hannam-ro, Daedeok-gu, Daejeon. The Korea Craft & Design Foundation’s daily schedule lists 14:00–18:00 on 19 October and 09:00–18:00 from 20 to 25 October.

Specialist talks on the garments’ form and design take place in the third-floor experience education room on 20 October, 14:00–15:00; 22 October, 15:00–16:00; and 24 October, 14:00–15:00. The wider programme also includes trying on hanbok and having an instant photograph taken.

Keyring workshop and registration

A keyring-making workshop using traditional knots runs from 14:00 to 15:00 on 21, 22 and 23 October in the third-floor experience education room.

Weekday exhibition visits need no application. Weekend exhibition visits, talks and workshops require registration by the day before the chosen session. The museum’s official form asks for a name, affiliation, contact number and programme choice. Visitors may join more than one programme but must register for each session separately.

AI design contest

The generative-AI design contest, ‘내일의 선을 그리다’ (‘Drawing Tomorrow’s Lines’), closes on 15 October, before the culture week begins. The notice does not give a closing hour.

Anyone able to use generative AI may enter individually or as a team, with one work per person or team. Entries can reinterpret dangui as everyday hanbok or use traditional dress, accessories and motifs in cultural products.

Entry requirements and prizes

Entries must be printable JPG or PNG files in a vertical 3:1 ratio, corresponding to 180 cm high by 60 cm wide. Entrants submit the image, title and explanation, the name of the generative AI model and the main prompts, with their name, affiliation and contact details in the email. Entries go to bakmul@hnu.kr with the subject ‘디자인콘테스트 지원_’ followed by the entrant’s name.

First-round results will be sent individually on 17 October, and ten selected works will be printed and exhibited. Experts and visitors will judge the final awards, with winners notified individually after 25 October. Prizes are one KRW 200,000 top award, two KRW 100,000 awards and two KRW 50,000 awards.

Enquiries and international visitors

International students are explicitly welcome, but the published information does not say whether interpretation is available or whether the Korean application form accepts overseas phone numbers. The notices also do not list class fees, material costs, capacities or remaining places.

Enquiries: 042-629-7696 or 042-629-7697; from outside Korea, +82-42-629-7696 or +82-42-629-7697; email bakmul@hnu.kr. Enquiry hours are weekdays 09:00–18:00, excluding 12:00–13:00. All times are Korea Standard Time.

The festival

The 26th Hanseong Baekje Festival runs from 23 to 25 October 2026 around the 88 Grass Field at Olympic Park in Seoul. Its theme, ‘찬란한 문화, 깊은 울림, 하나된 우리’, refers to radiant culture, deep resonance and a united community. The programme draws on Hanseong Baekje history and culture, combining traditional performance, contemporary music and local participation. Seoul’s event listing says participation is open to all.

The archival park photographs accompanying this article show the location, not the 2026 festival or this year’s stage layout.

Mask performance and musical gala

Special Songpa Sandae Nori performances are scheduled for 17:30 on 23 and 25 October. The 2026 leaflet lists a procession, the mask performance itself and a session in which audiences learn the movements.

At 11:00 on 24 October, the main stage hosts the Songpa Cultural Foundation’s musical gala ‘강가에 서서’, roughly ‘Standing by the River’. It reinterprets the Domi ferry legend associated with the Hanseong Baekje period as a story of love and forgiveness.

Opening night

The opening programme begins at 19:00 on Friday 23 October with a drone welcome ceremony, media art and contemporary dance, an orchestral collaboration and live band music. Loco and Davichi are scheduled to perform, and a drone light show is planned.

The official programme lists the running order and any weather-related changes.

Closing concert and Saturday

The closing ‘Hanseong Culture Concert’ begins at 19:00 on Sunday 25 October, with large-drum percussion, geomungo zither with a band, an ensemble presentation of pansori and fusion Korean traditional music featuring Lee Bong-geun. Kep1er and Dynamic Duo are also scheduled to perform.

On Saturday 24 October, the community programme ‘한마음 어울마당’ begins at 16:50. The 19:00 start of the opening and closing programmes is not the stage time of any particular act.

Experience village

The experience village is open daily from 10:00 to 19:00. The official leaflet lists T-shirt decorating with traditional patterns, creative building blocks, Baekje crown-making, crafts inspired by a gilt-bronze incense burner and traditional-design shrink-plastic keyrings.

Only two leaflet entries are marked free: the Baekje costume-rental and ‘horse riding’ entry, and drawing Hanseong Baekje in sand. Material charges, capacity and registration for other activities are set by each operator, and a free label does not guarantee a place.

Food market and getting there

The food market runs daily from 11:00 to 21:00. Because the experience village closes at 19:00, visitors who want both daytime activities and an evening concert should start with the experience area.

The 2026 leaflet gives an approximately five-minute walk from exits 3 or 4 of Olympic Park Station on subway lines 5 and 9, or about ten minutes from exit 2 of Hanseong Baekje Station on line 9. The festival is centred on the 88 Grass Field area within the park. Walking times may vary with crowds.

For international visitors

The published 2026 information does not confirm foreign-language interpretation, walk-in entry to every programme or free access to every activity. Visitors who need language support, accessibility information or a workshop booking should ask in advance.

The official website posts the latest running order and weather notices. Enquiries go to Songpa-gu’s Culture and Arts Division: 02-2147-2800, or +82-2-2147-2800 from outside Korea. All times are Korea Standard Time.

Three nights at Taipei Dome

YG’s official tour page lists Taipei Dome on 9, 10 and 11 October 2026, each at 6 p.m. local time. The dates were marked sold out when checked on 12 October. Taipei is one leg of a world tour that began at Goyang Stadium on 21–23 August.

Three members, twenty years

YG presents the tour as BIGBANG’s 20th-anniversary tour and names the line-up as G-DRAGON, TAEYANG and DAESUNG. According to YG, XX stands for the twenty years since the group’s debut and COSMOS for the connection between BIGBANG and its fans across past, present and future.

Singapore and Hanoi

The next official dates are 17 and 18 October at Singapore National Stadium, both at 7 p.m. Hanoi follows at My Dinh National Stadium on 24 and 25 October at 7:30 p.m. All times are local; the official tour page carries details for each city.

Venue photograph

Taipei Dome hosts both sports and live entertainment. Architect Archasia says it designed the venue with Populous. The accompanying archive photograph shows the dome’s exterior and the former Songshan Tobacco Factory in December 2023, not this concert’s stage or audience.

Busan and Seoul dates

Citing S&Co on 12 October, Newsis reported a run at Busan’s Dream Theatre from 17 December 2026 to 16 January 2027, followed by Seoul’s Sejong Center from 21 January to 20 March 2027. A Segye Ilbo article posted on S&Co’s official website also gives the December-Busan, January-Seoul order.

The show

Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote Hamilton’s book, music and lyrics, drawing on Ron Chernow’s biography Alexander Hamilton. The musical tells the story of the American founding-era figure through hip-hop, jazz, R&B and other styles.

A world tour starting in Asia

Crossroads Live UK, general manager of the new world tour, says the multi-year itinerary will begin in Asia in late 2026. Adventureland LLC is the producer. The Korean engagement is part of that Asian launch.

Casting and tickets to come

According to the 12 October Newsis report, casting and the first ticket-sale opening will be announced later; S&Co’s official website will post updates. The accompanying image shows creator Miranda at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019 and does not indicate that he will appear on the Korea tour.

The festival

Seoul Petlympic, hosted by Seoul Metropolitan Government on 24–25 October 2026 at World Cup Park’s Peace Plaza, brings dogs and handlers together in contests built on cues and teamwork. The second edition combines public-participation contests, specialist dog sports and on-site activities.

The official FAQ says people who do not own dogs may visit, and non-competitors can watch and join selected activities.

Four public events

The public competition has four disciplines: Stay Classic, Recall Sprint, a slalom through cones and a 15-metre Team Sprint. Stay Classic tests a dog’s focus in holding position; Recall Sprint its response to the handler’s call. The slalom zigzags between cones, and in Team Sprint dog and handler run the course together.

Entrants are divided by height. The official form separates dogs under 40cm from those 40cm or taller; there is no weight category.

Specialist dog sports

The spectator programme includes agility, disc-dog events, dog dancing and flyball. Agility dogs negotiate obstacles on the handler’s directions; disc events combine a chase and a catch; dog dancing sets movement to music; and flyball dogs clear hurdles and return with a ball.

The overall schedule lists an invited Korean national-team agility event from 2–3pm on 24 October, disc and freestyle contests on 25 October and flyball from 3–4pm that afternoon. Some discipline pages give different times, so the schedule is worth rechecking shortly before a visit. Saturday’s stage programme also includes a quiz and awards from 5–6pm.

On-site activities

The lounge-zone “Pettiquette 5 Challenge” is open to anyone visiting with a dog. Participants try five cues — come, stay, walk, house and fetch — and earn a badge for each one completed.

Booths offer face painting and water-transfer tattoos, commemorative crafts and sports-themed profile photography, along with dog-health consultations, rehabilitation and canine CPR and first-aid education. Seoul’s press release says the booths are free. Some activities may involve queues or close early.

Dog Trail

Dog Trail runs from 10am to noon on Sunday 25 October along an approximately four-kilometre circuit in the park. Check-in begins at 9am, followed by a course briefing and safety instruction at the stage zone before groups set off in turn.

The fee is KRW 40,000 for one person with one dog. Companions need their own entry; the form notes an exception for preschool children accompanying a guardian. Registration for 400 teams is online, first come, first served; whether places remain has not been confirmed.

Competition entry

Petlympic’s fee is KRW 40,000 for two disciplines on the same day, with advance online registration for 100 teams per discipline, 400 teams in total. Competitors must attend safety instruction. The official FAQ rules out on-site registration for Petlympic and the dog-sport competitions.

The forms linked from the official site, checked on 12 October, gave 2 October as the closing date for both Petlympic and Dog Trail. A registration button still on the website does not mean places remain. The operator, Korea Kennel Agility, can be reached at 0502-1949-0514 about further registration and conditions.

Getting there and rules on site

The venue is Peace Plaza in World Cup Park, Mapo-gu, listed as the World Cup-ro 251 area. It is a 10–15-minute walk towards Peace Park from Exit 1 of World Cup Stadium Station on Line 6; the nearest bus stop is Mapo Agricultural and Marine Products Market–World Cup Park. Peace Park Parking Lot charges KRW 300 per ten minutes for cars, but the organiser recommends public transport because of limited spaces and congestion.

Leashes and prompt waste collection are required, and visitors must ask another handler before approaching their dog. Water and a portable bowl are advisable, and the lounge is available if a dog becomes tired. Accessibility needs, including step-free routes, should be raised with the operator in advance. Rain or strong winds may change or cancel parts of the programme. All times are Korea Standard Time.