Some 700 attendees, ranging from teenagers to people in their 80s, gathered for a summer night performance, with a voluntary admission donation drive also held at the event.
![Audience members enjoy the music from inside mosquito nets at the Hwaeomsa Mosquito Net Concert on Saturday evening. [Hwaeomsa]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/08/09/news-p.v1.20260809.2c36750e9a1f47c8a1ba4aac5a0f8fce_P1.jpg)
The Jirisan Mosquito Net Concert, a one-of-a-kind summer night musical event, drew some 700 attendees ranging from teenagers to people in their 80s, bringing together multiple generations for a night of shared culture and community.
Hwaeomsa temple — led by head monk Useok — hosted the sixth edition of the Jirisan Daehwaeomsa Mosquito Net Concert on Saturday evening on a specially constructed outdoor stage at Hwaeomwon, within the temple grounds.
Now in its sixth year, the concert carried the theme "Lying Under Starlight, Melting Into the Breeze," weaving together the summer night atmosphere of Hwaeomsa on Jirisan — its starlight, fireflies, wind and rows of mosquito-net seating — into a distinctive outdoor cultural performance.
The event has earned recognition as a uniquely Hwaeomsa summer experience unlike anything easily found elsewhere in South Korea, and is increasingly regarded as a defining cultural brand for both Gurye-gun and Jirisan Daehwaeomsa.
Reservations sold out within 20 seconds of opening, an early sign of the strong public interest the concert commands. Despite the summer heat, the audience was a broad mix of families, couples, students on school break, local residents and tourists.
The presence of attendees spanning from young children and teenagers to visitors in their 80s underscored the concert's standing as Gurye's signature summer cultural event — one that genuinely crosses generational lines.
Actor Lee Geon-myeong, known in musical theater circles as the "gentleman of musicals," returned as the main MC for the second consecutive year. Musical actors Lisa, Kim Sin-ui, Baek Ju-yeon and Choi Ji-i also performed.
Music director Kim Ju-yeon oversaw the approximately 100-minute program, which moved from an opening video through individual performances, duets and ensemble numbers, a Disney special, a finale chorus and an audience-participation closing — a polished musical gala from start to finish.
The concert drew particular praise for Kim's nuanced programming. She wove together each performer's individual character and vocal color, the spatial qualities of the Hwaeomwon outdoor stage, and the emotional texture of a Jirisan summer night into a cohesive and assured whole.
The program was framed as a film-music concert in which the cast delivered messages of love, dreams, hope, comfort and the courage to carry on.
Lisa opened with a set centered on life, love and hope, while Kim Sin-ui sang of love, memory and the full range of human experience. Baek Ju-yeon told the story of those who dare to dream and try again, and Choi Ji-i completed the picture with a set that felt inseparable from the natural surroundings — the temple forest, fireflies, starlight and the mountain breeze.
The finale brought the entire cast together for "Bulgeun Noeul" ("Red Sunset Glow"), creating a moving moment as performers and audience sang together.
This year's event carried added meaning through its "voluntary donation admission" model, under which attendees chose what to give.
The suggested donation of 10,000 won ($7) went toward a community happiness-sharing fund. The total of 5 million won collected that day was divided equally, with 2.5 million won going to the Gurye-gun chapter of the Korea Association of the Deaf and 2.5 million won to the Gurye-gun chapter of the Korea Blind Union.
Hwaeomsa framed the fund not as event revenue but as a community-sharing contribution built collectively by every person who attended.
The donation ceremony carried additional significance as the first official public engagement for Jang Gil-seon, the newly elected Gurye-gun county chief, who previously served as chair of the Hwaeomsa lay Buddhist association.
"As chair of the Hwaeomsa lay association, I watched up close how the temple has walked alongside the local community over the years," Jang said. "It is deeply moving to mark my first official event as county chief at a meaningful occasion where the joy of a cultural performance flows directly into donations for our most vulnerable neighbors."
Seong Gi-hong, the public relations committee chair who organized the concert, said the event showed that Hwaeomsa's cultural programming "is growing into an open cultural brand that bridges generations and belongs to the wider community."
Head monk Useok said of the donation: "It is deeply meaningful that the Mosquito Net Concert did not simply leave people with the memory of an enjoyable performance, but extended into real, tangible help for neighbors in our community."
Hwaeomsa promotes the cultural value of its millennium-old grounds through a range of programs — a red plum blossom photo contest, a nighttime temple-opening program, the Hwayamong night event, a yoga competition, a line dance competition and the Mosquito Net Concert, among others.
The Mosquito Net Concert in particular — built around the symbolic elements of starlight, fireflies, mountain wind and mosquito-net seating — is growing into Gurye's defining summer cultural event, one that cannot easily be replicated anywhere else in South Korea.
parkds@heraldcorp.com
