Nearly 50,000 attend DDP Vacances music festival over three days

The "DDP Vacances: Music Festival," held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Jung-gu, Seoul, from July 31 to Aug. 2, drew 48,000 visitors over three days and closed to strong reviews. Organizers plan to sustain the momentum with citizen-participation evening programs, including a "Star Busking Night" and a "Citizens' Dance Night."

The Seoul Design Foundation announced Tuesday that, building on the success of DDP Vacances, it will host a series of citizen-participation programs and an international collectible design event at DDP this month.

DDP Vacances — the first nighttime summer festival of its kind at the venue — drew 48,000 visitors over three days, demonstrating the potential of urban nighttime programming. The festival combined music, food and leisure, with 14 organizations and 19 market vendors taking part. Advance reservations for 1,200 spots sold out within six hours of opening, and participant satisfaction reached 98 percent.

Each evening on the DDP Live Stage featured a different themed performance — "Jazz Night," "Classical Night" and "Folk Night." A highlight was a healing zone set up with more than 500 camping chairs across DDP's open grounds, where visitors relaxed on beanbags, took in live performances and enjoyed beer and a variety of food — an outdoor summer night experience rarely found at conventional concert venues.

The strong public response to DDP Vacances will carry into two more evening programs later this month under the "DDP Open Stage" series. The Star Busking Night, scheduled for Aug. 19, will give rookie musicians and indie artists — who have had limited opportunities to reach wider audiences — a chance to perform on the DDP stage. The Citizens' Dance Night on Aug. 28 will recruit participants from the public in an audience-led format where attendees learn choreography and take center stage themselves, moving beyond the passive spectator culture of traditional performances.

Following the citizen-participation evening programs, DDP will also host a world-class collectible design event. In partnership with the global design platform Design Miami, the Seoul Design Foundation will present "Design Miami/ Seoul 2026" for general audiences on the first floor of DDP Design Lab from Sept. 1 to 6.

"We will expand DDP into an open design culture platform where citizen participation and global design exchange continue, raising the quality of life for residents," said Cha Gang-hee, president of the Seoul Design Foundation.