Grand Mint Festival 2026: Dates, Tickets & Venue (Seoul)

What Grand Mint Festival actually is

Grand Mint Festival, often shortened to GMF by regulars, is one of Seoul’s established autumn outdoor music festivals. It’s built around indie, folk, and alternative acts rather than the EDM or K-pop-heavy bills you’ll find at other Korean festivals.

The 2026 edition runs October 17-18, a Saturday and Sunday, at Olympic Park. Two days means most fans pick one day or buy a combined pass, depending on which acts are billed for each date.

Olympic Park as a festival site

Olympic Park sits in southeastern Seoul, in the Bangi-dong area of Songpa District, built originally for the 1988 Summer Olympics. It’s a genuinely huge site: rolling lawns, sculpture gardens, lakes, and several stadium buildings spread across what feels more like a green campus than a city park.

GMF has used open lawn areas here for years, setting up multiple stages that let one act finish as another starts nearby. That layout means a fair amount of walking between sets.

• Nearest subway access: Olympic Park Station, Line 5 (exits 3 and 9 lead toward the park’s main gates)
• Mongchontoseong Station, Line 8, is another option depending on which stage area you’re headed to
• Bring a layer for evening sets; mid-October nights in Seoul run cool even when afternoons are mild

Reading the lineup and stages

Grand Mint Festival typically organizes its bill around a headline act or two, with a wider roster of supporting artists filling a main stage and one or two smaller stages tucked into different lawn sections. Genres lean toward Korean and international indie rock, singer-songwriters, and folk-leaning bands, with a handful of louder alternative acts mixed in.

Because the two days often have different headline draws, check which artists play which date before choosing a single-day ticket. Set times cluster from early afternoon into the evening, with the biggest names closing each night on the main stage.

Tickets and what they typically include

Grand Mint Festival has historically sold single-day tickets and two-day passes, with pricing tiers that shift year to year based on the lineup and whether you buy early. Tickets are usually sold through Korean ticketing platforms tied to the festival’s official channels rather than at the gate on the day.

Confirm timing and tickets on the official Grand Mint Festival site and its social channels, since exact prices, on-sale windows, and any age or ID requirements are set independently each year and can differ from past editions.

Getting in without the standing-in-line scramble

Gates typically open well before the first act, and the walk from Olympic Park Station to the stage areas takes ten to fifteen minutes on foot, longer if you’re carrying a folding chair or blanket. Most festival regulars arrive early to claim lawn space near their preferred stage rather than fighting for a spot mid-afternoon.

• Cashless payment is standard at most Korean festivals now; a T-money card or credit card covers food stalls and merchandise
• Re-entry rules vary by year, so check your ticket terms if you plan to leave and come back
• Food stalls inside the park sell Korean festival staples like tteokbokki and fried chicken alongside coffee carts, but variety is limited compared to a city street, so eating beforehand isn’t a bad idea

Making a weekend of it

Olympic Park itself is worth arriving early for beyond the festival. The Seoul Olympic Museum, the outdoor sculpture park (SOMA), and the Mongchontoseong earthen fortress walls are all inside the same grounds and free to wander before gates open.

Songpa District also puts you close to Lotte World and the Han River, both easy add-ons if you’re building a longer Seoul trip around the festival weekend. Staying near Jamsil, one subway stop from Olympic Park Station, keeps transit simple for both festival days.