35. Seoul Silver Grass Festival — A Week of Reeds Above the City, and How to Actually Get Up There

October 11, 2026 | Festival | hellokr.kr

There is a hill in western Seoul where, for fifteen years, the city dumped its garbage. From 1978 to 1993 this was Nanjido landfill. The city then spent six years stabilizing it, and on 1 May 2002 reopened the ground as World Cup Park. The highest part of it, closest to the sky, was named Haneul Park — Sky Park. What grows there now is silver grass, and for one week every October the city runs a festival in it.

The 25th edition runs 17 to 23 October 2026. It is free. It is inside Seoul, which means you do not need a day off work or an intercity bus ticket to see it. And it has one practical trap that nobody warns visitors about, which is the real reason this article exists: getting to the top of the hill is harder than getting to the neighbourhood, and the ride up stops running before the best part of the evening ends.

Quick Info

Dates: October 17 (Sat) to October 23 (Fri), 2026 — the 25th edition
Hours: 10:00 to 21:00 daily
Venue: Haneul Park, World Cup Park, 243-60 World Cup-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul
Cost: Free admission. The only thing you pay for is the park cart up the hill (2,000 won one way for an adult)
Getting there: Seoul Subway Line 6 to World Cup Stadium Station or Mapo-gu Office Station, then about a 40-minute walk — or ride the park cart from the Nanjicheon Park car park
Nightly highlight: Lighting show, 19:00 to 20:30, every day of the festival
English: Expect little to none on site. The programme is aimed at Seoul residents
Annual: Yes — held each October, this being the 25th
Best For: Anyone already in Seoul with half a day, evening photographers, families
Inquiries: Seobu Park and Recreation Center, +82-2-300-5574 or +82-2-300-5579

In One Line

A free week-long reed festival on a restored landfill hill inside Seoul, with a lighting show every evening from 7:00 to 8:30 — worth planning around the fact that the cart up the hill stops at 7:00.

Why This Festival

It is the rare Seoul festival you can reach without leaving Seoul

Most of the Korean autumn festivals worth travelling for are not in Seoul. Jinju is three hours away. Gangneung is on the other coast. If you are in Seoul for a week, the practical question is what you can do in an afternoon on a subway ticket. This is one of the few honest answers in October.

The ground itself is the story

Seoul does not hide what this place was. The city's own park service describes the site plainly: fifteen years of household waste from 1978 to 1993, stabilization works from 1996 to 2002, and a park opened on 1 May 2002 in time for the World Cup. Standing in chest-high reeds on top of that is a different experience from standing in chest-high reeds somewhere that was always a meadow. It is the most visible piece of environmental repair in the city.

The evening programme is the point, not the daytime

Silver grass photographs best in low, raking light, and the festival is built around that. The lighting show runs 19:00 to 20:30 every single day of the week-long run, pairing music with coloured lighting across the reed beds. The opening ceremony on 17 October, 18:00 to 19:00, adds a pop-opera set by the singer Volare and a performance by the Seongmisan Orchestra. If you only have one trip in you, go in the late afternoon and stay into the dark.

What to See and Do

The organizer's programme for 2026 breaks down like this:

Opening ceremony — 17 October, 18:00 to 19:00. Lighting show, pop-opera singer Volare, Seongmisan Orchestra.
Lighting show — daily, 19:00 to 20:30. Music and coloured lighting through the reed beds. This is the thing people come for.
Busking — daily, 14:00 to 17:30, across a range of genres.
Resource-recycling market — daily, 14:30 to 18:30, selling recycled goods. A deliberate nod to the ground it stands on.
Hands-on programmes — bouquet-making from the reeds, seed-bomb making. Sign up on site, no advance booking.
Special programmes — meditation, workshops, and a mug-recycling repotting session. These require advance reservation, so if one appeals, call the number above before you go.

The split between walk-up and reserved programmes matters for a visitor who does not read Korean: the bouquet and seed-bomb tables take you as you arrive, while the meditation and workshop slots do not. Plan on the walk-up ones.

Getting There

This is where visitors get caught, so read this part twice.

The subway gets you to the bottom of the hill, not the festival

Take Seoul Subway Line 6 to World Cup Stadium Station or Mapo-gu Office Station. From either station, the city's own festival notice puts the walk at about 40 minutes. That is not a figure for a stroll across a plaza — Haneul Park is a hill, and the walk ends by climbing it. If you are mobile and unhurried, it is a pleasant approach through the wider park. If you have a toddler, a camera bag, or ninety minutes total, it is a mistake.

The park cart is the real answer

World Cup Park runs small electric carts, known locally as maengkkongi carts. For the festival, the organizer directs visitors to board at the Nanjicheon Park car park. The route that matters climbs from Nanjicheon Park to the top of Haneul Park.

Fares, as posted by the city for the park carts: adults 2,000 won one way, 3,000 won return; children 1,500 won one way, 2,200 won return. The posted operating window is 09:00 to 19:00, with a break from 12:00 to 12:30.

The trap: the cart stops at 19:00, the lighting show ends at 20:30

Put those two facts side by side. The thing you came for runs from 19:00 to 20:30. The cart's posted service ends at 19:00. If you ride up at 18:00 and stay for the full lighting show, you should expect to walk back down in the dark, and to add the 40-minute return walk to the station on top of that.

None of that is a reason to skip the evening. It is a reason to wear real shoes, to carry a phone with charge, and to decide in advance whether you are leaving at 19:00 by cart or at 20:30 on foot. Those are different evenings. Cart hours can be adjusted for festival weeks, so if the ride down matters to you, call the park cart line on +82-2-300-5516 or the festival office on +82-2-300-5574 the day before and ask.

Go by public transport

The organizer explicitly recommends public transport and warns of congestion during the festival. Haneul Park sits above a car park that fills, on a hill with one way up. Line 6 is the right call.

Practical Info

Admission: Free, both to the park and to the festival. There is no ticket gate.
Park hours versus festival hours: World Cup Park itself opens at 06:00 and, in October, closes at 21:00. The festival programme runs 10:00 to 21:00. So an early riser can be in the reeds at dawn with the park to themselves — there just will not be any programming yet.
What to wear: Shoes you can climb and descend a hill in. The top is open and exposed, so it is colder and windier than the street below — bring a layer you would not bother with in central Seoul.
Best time to arrive: Mid-to-late afternoon. You get the low light on the reeds, the busking from 14:00, the market from 14:30, and then the lighting show.
Crowds: Expect them, especially on the opening weekend of 17 and 18 October. A weekday evening is calmer.
Language: Little English signage. Download a translation app and Naver Map or Kakao Map before you go.
Accessibility: The approach is a hill walk and the cart is the only ride up. If stairs or sustained climbing are a problem, call the park before planning the trip rather than finding out at the bottom.

The Bottom Line

If you are in Seoul in the third week of October, this is the easiest good thing on the calendar. It costs nothing, it is on Line 6, and the reeds on a restored landfill under a lighting show at eight in the evening is a genuinely strange and beautiful thing to look at.

Just go up knowing how you are coming down. Ride the cart from Nanjicheon Park, arrive in the afternoon, and then make the actual decision: cart down at seven, or the full show and a walk. Visitors who do not plan that one detail are the ones standing at the top at half past eight wondering where the ride went.