2026 DMZ OPEN Festival

The DMZ OPEN Festival is Gyeonggi-do's flagship multi-genre cultural event, designed to let visitors directly experience the peace, ecological, and historical value of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) through art, academic programs, sports, and more. Rather than viewing the DMZ simply as a space of division and military tension, the festival reinterprets its long-preserved ecological environment and historical significance, along with the possibility of peace and coexistence, through today's cultural language. Gyeonggi-do is expanding this idea under the concept of 'OPEN'—transforming the 'closed' DMZ into a space open to everyone—and the event is run not as a single occasion but as a long-running program spanning multiple genres.

The core of the DMZ OPEN Festival lies in going one step beyond an event 'about viewing the DMZ' to become a festival where visitors 'walk, listen, see, and think about the DMZ' through direct experience. Its central value is to bring the DMZ's peace, ecological, and historical worth—and a 'greater peace'—to life as a festival, connecting different programs in art, academia, and sports into a single narrative.

The DMZ OPEN Festival is Gyeonggi-do's flagship multi-genre cultural event, reframing the Demilitarized Zone's ecology and history through art, academic programs, and sports rather than treating it as just a site of division. It runs as a long-running, multi-genre program (12 October–29 November 2026) rather than a single-day event, so there's time to explore its mix of exhibitions and activities at Imjingak.

The venue is at Imjingak in Munsan-eup, Paju-si, Gyeonggi-do, close to the DMZ. From Seoul, the Gyeongui-Jungang commuter line runs out toward Paju, with onward transfer (taxi or local bus) to Imjingak; many visitors also use DMZ-area tour buses or shuttles that depart from central Seoul. By car via the Jayuro expressway, the trip takes roughly an hour to 90 minutes from central Seoul.