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 found at other Korean festivals.

The 2026 edition was set for October 17-18, a Saturday and Sunday, at Olympic Park. With two days on the bill, fans could pick one day or buy a combined pass, depending on which acts were 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 the stage area
• 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.

The two days often have different headline draws, which makes single-day tickets popular with fans following particular artists. Set times typically 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 how early people buy. Tickets are usually sold in advance through Korean ticketing platforms rather than at the gate on the day.

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 with a folding chair or blanket. Festival regulars usually claim lawn space near their preferred stage early 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 and are set out in each edition’s ticket terms
• 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

Making a weekend of it

Olympic Park itself is worth time 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 outside festival hours.

Songpa District also sits close to Lotte World and the Han River, both easy add-ons to a longer Seoul trip. Jamsil, one subway stop from Olympic Park Station, is a convenient base with simple transit to the park.