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Van Gogh's Night Sky to Light Up Seoul: World Fireworks Festival Set for Sept. 5

Yun Nara

Published : Aug 28, 2026 12:37 PM

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[Anchor]

The Seoul International Fireworks Festival, which brilliantly illuminates Seoul's autumn nights every year, will be held next Saturday around Hangang Park. This year's fireworks show will draw inspiration from Van Gogh's "The Starry Night," with the schedule brought forward compared to previous years considering the Chuseok holiday.

Reporter Yun Nara brings us this week's news from Seoul.

[Reporter]

Colorful fireworks illuminate the Han River and the night sky.

The Seoul International Fireworks Festival, held annually in the autumn, will take place on September 5 from 1:00 PM to 10:00 PM.

Started by Hanwha Group in 2000 as a social contribution activity, the fireworks festival has established itself as a major event enjoyed by over 1 million domestic and foreign visitors.

Under the theme "Finding Your Light," this year's festival will feature teams from Hanwha, the United States, and the United Kingdom, who plan to portray the diverse aspects of a glowing life through fireworks.

Hanwha, which will grandly close out the festival, will stage a fireworks show starting at 8:40 PM themed "Puzzle of Light," inspired by Vincent van Gogh's "The Starry Night."

The event will also showcase a "decalcomanie" effect, with fireworks unfolding symmetrically across the night sky over the Han River centered around Wonhyo Bridge.

The fireworks festival is usually held during the first week of October, but this year the schedule was moved up by about a month in consideration of the Chuseok holiday.

Approximately 5,000 safety management and order maintenance personnel will be deployed to the festival site to manage crowds and handle cleanup.

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Flowers bloom and leaves ripple across the exterior wall of Dongdaemun Design Plaza.

The Seoul Design Foundation will host the media art festival "Seoul Light DDP Autumn" at DDP from September 3 to 13.

Utilizing the 222-meter-long exterior wall of DDP as a canvas, "Seoul Light DDP" has swept the world's top three design awards for four consecutive years up to this year.

This year, the festival will present media art featuring video art by Paik Nam-june and "Cheonggu Yeongeon," a collection of lyrics from Joseon-dynasty sijo poet Kim Cheon-taek.

In addition, "responsive media art," where visuals react in real-time to musical performances, will be unveiled for the first time.

The performances can be viewed for free every evening from 7:30 PM to 10:30 PM.

Video by So Ji-hye