Yeongju's Museom Stepping-Stone Bridge Festival set for this weekend in Munsu-myeon

Yeongju City in North Gyeongsang Province will hold the 2026 Yeongju Museom Stepping-Stone Bridge Festival from Saturday to Sunday at Museom Village in Munsu-myeon, the city announced Wednesday.

This year's festival carries the theme "Museom — Crossing Time, Connecting People," weaving the arc of a single life into the storied single-log bridge that once welcomed brides arriving by flower palanquin and bid farewell to the departed carried on funeral biers. Through traditional performances and hands-on activities, the program traces life's journey — from childhood and courtship to marriage and a final farewell.

On the first day, the headline program "A Wedding on the Bridge — Museom Love Song" will unfold from 10:30 a.m., as a bride and groom, accompanied by a folk-music troupe, cross the stepping-stone bridge and make their way to the sandbar and wedding venue for a traditional ceremony reenactment.

The official opening ceremony will follow at 12:30 p.m. on the main stage at Nongdang Historic House.

The opening stage will pair master singer Bae Il-dong's pansori — accompanied by jangdan percussion, piri flute and geomungo zither — with a large-brush calligraphy performance by artist Kim Seong-tae, blending the village's tranquil scenery with the beauty of traditional arts.

The second day will feature "Museom Byeolga," a program expressing life's final journey. From 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., the Munsu-myeon Traditional Funeral Bier Preservation Society will lead a reenactment of traditional funeral chants and a bier procession across the sandbar and stepping-stone bridge, with residents and tourists joining to offer a last send-off.

Another hallmark of the festival is its use of the entire village as a living experience space. A "Museom Exploration Tour" will guide visitors through five historic sites — Ado Seosuk, Haeudan Historic House, Manjukjae Historic House, Oheon Historic House and the Museom Exhibition Hall — where they can try traditional games including tuho arrow-throwing, spinning tops, stone-tipping, card-flipping and jegi shuttlecock-kicking.

Scattered across the historic houses and sandbar, a separate program called "Museom Village Life Day" will offer hands-on experiences of traditional village culture, including recitations of classical Korean verse and scriptures and a game of yunnori.

"This year's festival was prepared so that visitors can feel more deeply the stories Museom Village holds — by placing the beginning and end of a life, and everything in between, on the stepping-stone bridge," an official from the Yeongju Culture and Tourism Foundation said.