Seoul's Seocho-gu, led by District Mayor Jeon Seong-su, is ramping up preparations for the 2026 Seoripul Music Festival — one of South Korea's premier urban music festivals, set for September — by formally activating a public-private-academic cooperation framework within the community.
The district held the 2026 Seoripul Music Festival Steering Committee meeting Wednesday at the Opera Hall on the second floor of L Tower. More than 20 people attended, including District Mayor Jeon, Seocho District Council Speaker Yu Ji-ung, heads of major local institutions and field experts.
The steering committee was established to raise the festival's overall quality by connecting Seocho-gu's rich cultural infrastructure with local resources, and to build a safety management framework capable of handling the large crowds expected at the downtown event.
At the meeting, General Director Song Seung-eun presented the key plans for the 2026 Seoripul Music Festival. Participants — led by the Seocho Police Station and Seocho Fire Station — then discussed safety measures including crowd management and traffic control.
Leaders of the district's major cultural and educational institutions also exchanged views on expanding opportunities for young artists to perform and on linking their programs with the festival. Participants included representatives from Seoul Arts Center, the Korea National University of Arts, the National Gugak Center, Seoul National University of Education, Baekseok Arts University and the Seocho Cultural Center.
Representatives from Hyundai Motor Company, Shinsegae and other leading local companies, along with religious community leaders, also attended and agreed to work together toward creating a warm, community-centered urban festival.
This year's Seoripul Music Festival will be held Sept. 19 and 20 along an approximately 900-meter car-free stretch of Banpo-daero between Seocho Station and the Seocho 3-dong intersection. A highlight of this year's edition is an official collaboration with Wally, the popular character from Universal Studios — a large-scale interactive experience space will be set up in the middle of Banpo-daero as part of a lineup of participatory content designed for all generations.
Ahead of the main event, a four-week "festival season" running from Aug. 29 through Sept. 18 will feature pre-festival warm-up programs across Seocho-gu.
"We expect that Seocho's outstanding cultural and artistic resources, combined with close public-private-academic cooperation, will allow us to deliver an even more polished festival," District Mayor Jeon said. "We will do our utmost to ensure thorough safety management and systematic traffic measures so that both residents and visitors can enjoy a high-quality music festival with complete peace of mind."
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