This post summarizes official announcements; it is not a review of a visit. Sources: Gangdong-gu's press release (September 30, 2026), the festival website and Seoul city's festival listings, checked on October 7, 2026. The character illustrations are GPT-generated images.
- Dates
- Fri, Oct 16, 2026 ~ Sun, Oct 18
- Hours
- 10:00–22:00, varies by program
- Venue
- Seoul Amsa-dong Prehistoric Settlement Site & Amsa History Park (서울 암사동 유적·암사역사공원)875 Olympic-ro, Gangdong-gu, Seoul (서울 강동구 올림픽로 875)
- Fee
- Free (some activities charge a fee)
- Organizer
- Gangdong-gu Office, Seoul
- Official
- Official notice (Korean) ↗
- Updated
- when we last re-checked the official notice
📅 Schedule at a glance
October 2026
Event daysHighlightsTodayKorean public holidays
Korea Meteorological Administration · 10/15, 8 AM issued · forecasts can change
📌 What's on each day
- 10/16Fri★ Drone show · Street paradeToday
- 10/17SatHosang-nori · Singing contestToday
- 10/18Sun★ Fireworks · Lee Sedol talkToday
🔁 Daily · Water-gun siege · hut building · Forest of Light 18:00–22:00
Gangdong Seonsa Culture Festival 2026 in Seoul — Schedule, Drone Show, Fireworks & Parking at the Amsa-dong Prehistoric Site
Official poster of the 31st Gangdong Seonsa Culture Festival — Oct 16 (Fri) – 18 (Sun), Amsa-dong Prehistoric Settlement Site (Photo: Korea Tourism Organization · KOGL Type 3)
Cool October air,
and a festival that takes you
to Seoul 6,000 years ago 🍂
The 31st Gangdong Seonsa Culture Festival
(강동선사문화축제 — “seonsa” means prehistoric)
runs for three days, Fri Oct 16 – Sun Oct 18,
around the Amsa-dong Prehistoric Settlement Site
and Amsa History Park in Seoul.
Admission is free.
Some hands-on activities charge a separate fee.
We put this together from
Gangdong-gu’s press release (September 30),
the festival website, Seoul city’s listings
and the Korea Tourism Organization’s event info.
🎪 What kind of festival is it?
Entrance of a past festival — a spiral tower and flowers decorating the festival sign (Photo: Korea Tourism Organization · KOGL Type 3)
This year’s theme is
’The Beginning of Seoul, Amsa’.
Gangdong-gu describes the Amsa-dong site
as the place where people
first settled in Seoul.
It’s the only festival in Seoul
chosen by the Ministry of Culture,
Sports and Tourism
as a 2026–2027 candidate festival.
The grounds are divided into ‘lands’.
Here’s what each zone has, in a table.
| Zone | What’s there |
|---|---|
| Land of Fire | Main stage (opening & closing ceremonies) |
| Land of Water | Second stage, water-gun play |
| Land of Earth | Forest & round stages inside the site, craft activities, the night light festival |
| Land of Wind | New this year: the Time-Slip Handcrafted Market |
| Rest zone | Prehistoric BBQ |
| Food zone | Street food |
The 2025 festival — a straw mammoth in the middle of a flower bed (Photo: Korea Tourism Organization · KOGL Type 3)
📅 What’s on, and when?
Here are the three days of stage programs,
by date and time.
| Date & time | Program |
|---|---|
| Oct 16 (Fri) 15:00–16:00 | ‘Dream’ street parade (gilnori) — festival entrance → main stage |
| Oct 16 (Fri) 16:00–16:40 | Jultagi tightrope walking (National Intangible Cultural Heritage) |
| Oct 16 (Fri) 19:00–21:00 | Opening ceremony & drone show — Seol Woon-do, Wax, Space A |
| Oct 17 (Sat) 14:00–16:00 | Bawijeol Village hosang-nori reenactment — a folk funeral-procession performance |
| Oct 17 (Sat) 14:30–16:00 | ‘WHY’ prehistory talk concert — archaeologist Kwak Min-su, webtoon artist Lee Jong-beom |
| Oct 17 (Sat) 17:00 | Electric Forest night DJ show |
| Oct 17 (Sat) 19:00–21:00 | Gangdong Seonsa Singing Contest |
| Oct 18 (Sun) 13:00–15:30 | Seonsa Rock (樂) Festival |
| Oct 18 (Sun) 14:00–15:00 | Lee Sedol talk concert |
| Oct 18 (Sun) 17:00 | Electric Forest night DJ show |
| Oct 18 (Sun) 19:00–21:00 | Closing ceremony & fireworks — Nam Jin, So Chan-whee, Shin Hyo-bum |
The day-one start time
differs between sources.
Seoul city’s listing says from 18:00 on the 16th,
the Korea Tourism Organization’s event info says 15:00,
but on the festival website,
programs start at 10:00 on the 16th too.
The 2025 festival street parade — costumed marchers and confetti (Photo: Korea Tourism Organization · KOGL Type 3)
A past festival's night stage — the audience under big screens and lights (Photo: Korea Tourism Organization · KOGL Type 3)
A past festival's drone show — a mammoth drawn in the night sky (Photo: Korea Tourism Organization · KOGL Type 3)
Fireworks at the 2025 festival (Photo: Korea Tourism Organization · KOGL Type 3)
🎨 Hands-on by day, a forest of light by night
Activities run all three days!
Here are the activities, food and night sights by time.
| Date & time | What to enjoy |
|---|---|
| Daily 13:00–13:30, 15:00–15:30 | Prehistoric tribe water-gun siege (Land of Water) |
| All day | Mammoth-target water-gun hunt, water-pattern tattoo stickers, Fountain of Luck (Land of Water) |
| All day | Recycled cardboard-box costumes, prehistoric huts built from twigs (Land of Earth) |
| Daily 13:00–13:30, 16:00–17:30 | Prehistoric baduk (Go) (Land of Earth) |
| 10:00–18:00 | Moving Library (Land of Earth) |
| 10:00–20:00 | Prehistoric BBQ — grill pork belly and more over big fire pits |
| 10:00–22:00 | Food zone |
| 10:00–20:00 | Market |
| Daily 18:00–22:00 | Goddess of the Earth & the Forest of Light |
| 19:00–21:00 | Media facade on the Prehistoric Site Museum’s outer wall |
A past festival's excavation activity — kids gather around a dig pit (Photo: Korea Tourism Organization · KOGL Type 3)
A past festival — people in caveman costumes grilling over a long fire pit (Photo: Korea Tourism Organization · KOGL Type 3)
A past festival — people dressed as cave dwellers relaxing on beanbags (Photo: Korea Tourism Organization · KOGL Type 3)
A past festival at night — the venue lit up with lights and projections (Photo: Korea Tourism Organization · KOGL Type 3)
🚇 Getting there & parking
Here’s where to get off by subway and bus.
| Transport | Where to get off · walk |
|---|---|
| Subway Line 8 | Amsa History Park Station (암사역사공원역) exit 3, a 10-minute walk |
| Subway | Amsa Station (Line 8) exit 4, a 15-minute walk |
| Bus 340 · 3411 · 3318 | Samsung Gwangnaru Apt. stop (삼성광나루아파트) |
| Bus 3324 | The stop by Amsa History Park Station exit 3 |
There are four temporary parking lots.
| Temporary parking | Address |
|---|---|
| Seonsa Elementary School | 837 Olympic-ro |
| Seonsa High School (sources differ) | 17 Godeok-ro 25-gil |
| Sinam Middle School | 65 Godeok-ro |
| Amsa History Park lot | — |
The high school isn’t certain yet:
the text notice says Seonsa High School,
but the map image on the website says Sinam High School.
Please check the website before you set off.
Last year (the 30th festival),
the road from the Seonsa Elementary School intersection
to the Seowon Village rotary was closed
and some buses were rerouted.
There’s no road-closure notice for this year yet.
👨👩👧 Going with kids
The water-gun siege and hunt
can get clothes wet.
Bring a change of clothes and a towel.
Hut and costume making run all day,
so you don’t need to time your visit.
Night programs go on until 22:00,
so a jacket is a good idea.
Here’s how you can watch
the Lee Sedol talk concert.
| How to join | Who · how many · when |
|---|---|
| Advance sign-up | 100 Gangdong-gu residents, Oct 12 10:00 – Oct 13 18:00 |
| On-site registration | 30 people, from 12:00 that day |
| Outside the barrier | Anyone can watch |
Fireworks: Sun 18th, closing ceremony!
Both are main-stage slots at 19:00–21:00,
so if you can go only one day, pick the date first
⏳ Not announced yet
□ Exact times of the drone show & fireworks
□ Temporary parking fees & shuttle buses
□ Name of the high-school parking lot
□ This year’s road closures
□ How the prehistoric BBQ works & what it costs
□ Times & sign-up for the Neolithic Archaeology School
□ What happens if it rains
None of this is in the official notices yet.
We’ll update this post once it’s out.
👍 Recommended for these families
✔ Families looking for hands-on fun like water guns and hut building
✔ Families who want to see a drone show or fireworks
✔ Kids who love baduk (Go)
(prehistoric baduk · Lee Sedol talk concert)
Prehistoric activities by day, a forest of light by night.
A festival that fills a whole day, for free!
We put this together from official announcements before going ourselves. Event photos are from the Korea Tourism Organization, released under KOGL Type 3 (attribution, no derivatives) and shown unedited. The character illustrations are GPT-generated images.
📷 The festival in photos 11
Swipe to see more
🔄 Updates
- Extra check
- First write-up
📎 Sources
- 한국관광공사 국문 관광정보(TourAPI) — 강동선사문화축제 행사정보·사진 (contentid 1307813) 한국관광공사 · 2026.9.22 · 관공서
- 6,000년 전 서울의 시작을 암사에서 만나다… 강동구, 제31회 강동선사문화축제 개최 서울 강동구 · 2026.9.30 · 관공서
- 제31회 강동선사문화축제 무대 프로그램 강동선사문화축제 누리집 · 주최
- 제31회 강동선사문화축제 체험 프로그램 강동선사문화축제 누리집 · 주최
- 제31회 강동선사문화축제 오시는 길 강동선사문화축제 누리집 · 주최
- 2026. 10월 문화달력 서울특별시 문화분야 누리집 · 2026.10.1 · 관공서
- 제31회 강동선사문화축제 서울특별시 펀서울 · 관공서
- 찾아가는 문화콘서트 특별회차 「이세돌 토크콘서트: 신의 한 수」 개최 안내 및 참가자 사전 모집 서울 강동구 · 2026.10.1 · 관공서
- 강동선사문화축제 팝드론 배틀대회 참가자 사전접수 안내 서울 강동구 · 2026.9.28 · 관공서
- 제30회 강동선사문화축제 개최에 따른 교통통제 및 버스 우회운행 안내 (지난해) 서울 강동구 · 2025.10.2 · 관공서
This is a guide based on official announcements, not a visit review. Schedules, programs and fees can change, so please re-check the official notice before you go.
Translated from our Korean post with AI assistance. Dates, times and other numbers were checked against the Korean original on October 7, 2026. We did not check whether the festival offers guidance in English. Original post (Korean)