Ulsan Grand Park Rose Festival
Ulsan Grand Park Rose Festival has launched its 11th annual festivities. Held every year since 2005, this year’s festival exhibits roughly 3 million roses in a 44,730 square-meter rose garden. Visitors will have the opportunity to marvel at a wide range of premium rose species, which have been planted throughout the park’s expansive garden areas including the Cupid Garden, Venus Garden, Rose Hills and various themed gardens.
Aside from the diverse rose species on display, festival goers can also enjoy viewing a variety of animals at the park, including 23 species of animals and 17 species of birds. The Ulsan Grand Park Rose Festival continues through May 29.
Everland Rose Festival
The nation’s largest outdoor amusement park, Everland, is hosting its annual Rose Festival, which will be held until June 12. The theme park, located in Yongin just outside of Seoul, is celebrating its 40th anniversary and is currently flooded with roughly one million roses scattered throughout the park’s luscious garden areas.
This year’s Rose Festival is highlighted by the newly opened “Shakespeare Garden,” which features specialized storyboards of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Sonnets” on select days, honoring the 400th anniversary of the bard’s death.
Every weekend during the festival will see a variety of performances including a show by a Beatles tribute band as well as a performance of “Hamlet” the opera. For more information, visit
www.everland.com.
2016 Changdeokgung Moonlight Tour
One of Seoul’s most popular palace tours, this year’s 2016 Changdeokgung Moonlight Tour will give guests the special opportunity to wander around the place grounds under the moonlight.
Typically closed off to the public at night, the annual event allows a limited number of visitors to explore the gorgeously lit-up Changdeokgung grounds in a special guided tour. Allowing only 100 guests per tour, the palace will host its annual nighttime palace festivities on selected days until June 22. There are separate dates and tours for Korean and Non-Koreans. Non-Koreans are not permitted to join a Korean tour and visa versa. Tickets for the event cost 30,000 won and must be purchased in advanced at interpark.com.
Moonlight Tour at Suwon Hwaseong
Similar to Seoul palaces’ nighttime tour openings, the Suwon Hwaseong Fortress will soon be open to visitors wanting to take a nighttime stroll on the historic site.
From May 21 to July 17, the Suwon Cultural Foundation will open the gates to the UNESCO World Heritage Suwon Hwaseong and Hwaseong Haenggung Palace to the public for a special nighttime program known as “Moonlight Tour at Suwon Hwaseong.” Participants can enjoy various programs such as exploring the palace, attending poetry reading and watch various traditional performances.
Tickets are listed at 20,000 won and must be purchased in advanced at interpark.com.
Boryeong Mud Festival
One of the most highly anticipated festivals of the year, the annual Boryeong Mud Festival attracts the largest number of international visitors of all the country’s top yearly festivals.
Not only can visitors enjoy a myriad of energetic and wild actives such as mud wrestling, mud sliding and even swimming in a mega mud tub, but participants can also take part in the marine mud-training course for some added competition and fun as well as enjoy a relaxing mud massage.
In the evening, visitors can head to the beach for a lively outdoor party atmosphere with live music and fireworks.
This year’s festival will be held from July 15 to 24.
