Travel
Seoul International Garden Festival unveils summer night movies, tours, and family programs
Haps Magazine Korea
July 8, 2026
(Photo by Seoul Metropolitan Government/courtesy of Haps Magazine Korea)
The 2026 Seoul International Garden Festival is expanding its summer lineup with a series of evening programs, family activities, and outdoor exhibitions after surpassing 6 million visitors since opening.
Running throughout July and August at Seoul Forest, the seasonal program shifts much of the festival’s activity into the evening to help visitors avoid the daytime heat.
The lineup includes outdoor film screenings, reading events, guided garden walks, children’s nature programs, and interactive activities.
One of the festival’s highlights is the Garden Cinema, where free outdoor movies will be shown every Saturday evening through August 29.
The schedule features a mix of family favorites and well-known films, including La La Land, Little Forest, Mamma Mia!, Wild Robot, Sing, Bohemian Rhapsody, Malmoe, My Neighbor Totoro, and The Secret Life of Pets 2.
Visitors can also take part in the Garden Library, an outdoor reading space open on Saturday evenings, or join the Midnight Radio program, where participants listen to book readings and music through wireless headsets.
Guided garden tours will continue throughout the summer, with additional evening sessions and a new small-group program offering more in-depth tours exploring the stories behind individual gardens, seasonal plants, and nighttime landscapes.
During the school vacation period, the festival is expanding its family-friendly offerings with insect observation programs, nighttime nature walks, gardening workshops, craft activities, and ecological education designed for children.
Interactive experiences include the Garden Secret Postcard activity, where visitors collect stamps from locations throughout Seoul Forest, along with volunteer opportunities that allow participants to help care for gardens or join environmental cleanup walks.
Also on display is SITTING IN SEOUL, a public art exhibition featuring benches created from trees damaged in recent wildfires. Installed throughout the ginkgo forest area of Seoul Forest, the exhibition highlights themes of sustainability and environmental recovery through functional public art.
Festival organizers note that some programs require advance reservations, while access to the tunnel connecting Seoul Forest and the Han River may be temporarily restricted during periods of heavy rain or high river levels.