The "Car-Free Jamsu Bridge Ttubeokttubeok Festival," one of Seoul's signature Han River events, will be held for the last time this year. With the bridge set to go fully pedestrian in the second half of next year, this will be the final chance for visitors to experience Jamsu Bridge while it still carries vehicle traffic.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced Tuesday that the 2026 Car-Free Jamsu Bridge Ttubeokttubeok Festival will run every Sunday from Sept. 6 to Oct. 25 along Jamsu Bridge and Banpo Han River Park.
Now in its fifth year since launching in the second half of 2022, the festival closes the bridge — which runs beneath Banpo Bridge — to vehicle traffic for the day. Attendance figures since its debut: about 520,000 visitors in the second half of 2022, about 2 million in 2023, about 1.5 million in 2024, about 1.28 million in 2025, and about 1.17 million in the first half of this year, bringing the five-year cumulative total to roughly 6.47 million visitors.
This year's second-half edition will be the last to take the car-free format before the bridge's full pedestrianization next year, after which the festival itself will be redesigned.
In line with the city's push to boost its nighttime economy, the festival's operating hours have been shifted one hour later, running from 2 to 10 p.m.
Every Sunday during the festival, vehicle traffic will be banned from noon to midnight along the roughly 1.1-kilometer stretch from the northern end of Jamsu Bridge to Dalbit Plaza at the southern end. About 70 traffic-control personnel will be deployed daily across 14 nearby intersections and checkpoints.
A different program will be offered each week. On Sept. 6, the waterfront stage at Banpo Han River Park will host "Jamsu Bridge Water Wars," a water-gun battle for 800 participants. On Sept. 13, university clubs will take the stage for "Ttuttu Together × Seoul Club ON," featuring singing, dancing and magic performances. Sept. 20 brings "Jamsu Bridge Fall Sports Day," with games including Red Light Green Light, tug-of-war and hula hoops. On Sept. 27, during the Chuseok holiday, six countries — South Korea, Argentina, Bulgaria, Russia, Panama and Kazakhstan — will present traditional performances at "Dalbit Hangawi Hanmadang."
On Oct. 4, food trucks serving dishes from around the world will line the bridge for "Jamsu Bridge Gourmet Road." Oct. 11 features "Dalbit Jamsu Bridge," a nighttime media art installation using Jamsu Bridge and Banpo Bridge as its canvas. Oct. 18 is "Jamsu Bridge Refresh Day," offering yoga, stretching and meditation sessions. A special program for the final Oct. 25 date will be announced later.
Throughout the festival, standing programs will include an interactive experience zone called "Dalbit Playground" at the northern end of Banpo Han River Park; "Camelback Canvas," where visitors can paint on the road at the southern end of the bridge's mid-section ridge known as the "camelback"; "Dalbit Restaurant," a cluster of 30 food trucks at both the northern and southern ends of Jamsu Bridge; and a silent DJ party at Banpo Han River Park.
"We will use next year's full pedestrianization of Jamsu Bridge as an opportunity to present an entirely new look for the Ttubeokttubeok Festival," said Park Jin-young, head of the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Future Han River Bureau.
ken@heraldcorp.com
