September 12, 2026 – September 13, 2026

Seoul's intangible heritage holders take over Namsangol Hanok Village and Namsan Gugakdang for one weekend — performances plus craft demonstrations, exhibitions and hands-on sessions. Saturday 11:00-21:00, Sunday 11:00-17:00. Chungmuro Station exit 4.

A hanok village handed over to its craftspeople

For one weekend Namsangol Hanok Village stops being a place you walk through and becomes a place where things are made in front of you. The Seoul Intangible Heritage Festival brings the city’s designated intangible heritage holders — performers and artisans both — into the village courtyards and into Namsan Gugakdang next door.

The programme covers performance and craft together: stage sets by heritage performers, and demonstrations, exhibitions and hands-on sessions run by the artisans themselves. This is the difference from a museum. The person showing you the work is the person the designation belongs to.

Why go

Hours are Saturday 12 September, 11:00–21:00 and Sunday 13 September, 11:00–17:00. Saturday runs into the evening, which is the better of the two if you want the courtyards after dark; Sunday closes early, so treat it as a daytime plan and not an afternoon one.

It also sits well against the other thing happening this week. Seoullight DDP is projecting onto a building until late every night, twenty minutes away by subway. One is light thrown at architecture; this one is a pair of hands and a wooden floor. Doing both in the same weekend is the whole range of the city in two stops.

Getting there

Chungmuro Station (Lines 3, 4), exit 4 — a three to five minute walk. The village entrance is at the bottom of the slope; the performance halls and Namsan Gugakdang are further in, so give yourself a few extra minutes if you are aiming for a specific stage time.

Admission was not stated in the city’s announcement — check the official notice before you go if that matters to your plan.