Festival ran Wednesday through Saturday at Ondream Society and surrounding Myeong-dong venues

Lectures by Lee Nak-jun, Yozoh and Kim Young-min; performances by Kim Gwang-jin and Jaessbi

Historical sites of Yi Hoe-yeong, Yi Si-yeong brothers and other Myeong-dong landmarks featured

Visitors browse experience booths set up at the 2026 ONSO FESTIVAL in the courtyard of the Catholic Center in Myeong-dong, Seoul. This year's festival expanded beyond Ondream Society to venues across the Myeong-dong area, offering lectures, performances, exhibitions and hands-on programs. [Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-koo Foundation]
Visitors browse experience booths set up at the 2026 ONSO FESTIVAL in the courtyard of the Catholic Center in Myeong-dong, Seoul. This year's festival expanded beyond Ondream Society to venues across the Myeong-dong area, offering lectures, performances, exhibitions and hands-on programs. [Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-koo Foundation]

The Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-koo Foundation said Monday that about 10,000 people attended the 2026 ONSO FESTIVAL, held from Wednesday through Saturday at Ondream Society and across the Myeong-dong neighborhood of Seoul.

The ONSO FESTIVAL is a flagship program of Ondream Society, a multipurpose cultural space the foundation operates. This year, the foundation expanded both the program lineup and the venue to give young people more opportunities to meet diverse individuals, explore new content and discover fresh interests.

Breaking from previous years, when lectures and workshops were held exclusively inside Ondream Society, the festival extended to the courtyard beside Myeong-dong Cathedral and the plaza in front of the Catholic Center. Performances, exhibitions and experience booths were set up so that passersby could join without prior registration.

The history of Myeong-dong itself was woven into the program. The foundation organized an exhibition and a story tour of historic sites in the area, including the former home of the six Yi brothers — Yi Hoe-yeong and Yi Si-yeong among them — who sold all their assets to fund the independence movement during the Japanese colonial period before departing for Manchuria, as well as a commemorative marker for the "YWCA sham wedding" protest.

The aim was to connect the choices and challenges of young people who once lived and worked in the neighborhood to the career and life questions facing today's youth. Participants walked through Myeong-dong and listened to explanations of each site and its historical significance.

The lecture series "ONSO Talk" featured Lee Nak-jun, a web novelist and physician; singer-songwriter Yozoh; and Kim Young-min, a professor at Seoul National University. Each speaker shared their experiences building a career across different fields with the young audience.

The performance program "ONSO Live in Myeong-dong" featured sets by Kim Gwang-jin, Jaessbi and Far East Asian Tigers, among others. Alongside the lectures and performances, the festival also ran workshops and hands-on programs for direct participant involvement.

Entrepreneurs and artists supported by the foundation also took part. Brothers Keeper and Aidrun, both fellows of the foundation's CMK Impact Preneur program, and artists Kim A-reum and Park Jin-sun, who have participated as ONSO Artists, each presented experience programs based on their own projects and work.

A joint exhibition with the Korea National University of Arts, titled "Shared World," will run through Nov. 20 at the gallery lounge on the first floor of Ondream Society. The show features works exploring the coexistence of humans, plants and animals, AI and the natural and urban environment.

Jeong Mu-seong, chairman of the Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-koo Foundation, said the festival aimed to bring inspiration closer to everyday life by opening its stage to the wider Myeong-dong neighborhood. "We hope Ondream Society can become Myeong-dong's defining space where young people's dreams and challenges begin, carrying on the founder's belief in the potential of the next generation," he said.

Ondream Society is a social-impact cultural complex the foundation opened in Myeong-dong in 2022. Its first floor hosts public programs including exhibitions, performances and lectures, while the sixth floor is home to impact startups supported by the foundation.

As of last year, the venue had welcomed a cumulative total of about 185,000 visitors. Since opening, it has lent its space free of charge for public-interest events on 254 occasions and has run 140 multipurpose cultural programs.


kwater@heraldcorp.com