A transportation olympiad and an international arts festival are converging on Gangneung at the same time, with a coffee festival running around the same time as well.
Gangneung Arts Center opened the 2026 Haslla International Arts Festival on Friday.
Pianist Paik Kun-woo, who lost his wife — one of Korea's finest actors, Yoon Jeong-hee — a few years ago, will close out the global festival. Having built a long career in Europe and the Americas, Paik is widely regarded as a forerunner of the classical hallyu wave that preceded Cho Seong-jin and Lim Yun-chan.
Held under the theme "Love and Friendship," the festival runs alongside the ITS World Congress (Oct. 19–23), known as the transportation olympics, and the Gangneung Coffee Festival (Oct. 21–25), continuing through Oct. 25 at Gangneung Arts Center's Saimdang Hall, its small performance hall, and various venues across the city.
Organized by the Haslla International Arts Festival Association and hosted by Gangneung Arts Center, the festival features nine main performances, seven community music celebrations called "Udeol (Us)," and two world premieres.
"We aim to offer cultural experiences where nature and the arts come together, centered on Gangneung, and to elevate the city's standing as a hub of culture and the arts," the organizers said. "Now in its third year, we will work to establish this as an international arts festival loved not only by residents of Gangwon Province and Gangneung but by audiences at home and abroad, through the solid artistry of world-class performers and a substantive program."
This year's theme of "Love and Friendship" centers on the trust and connection between composers and performers, and between artists and audiences, bringing classical music, gugak, illusion and dance together on a single stage in a harmonious blend of genres.
The timing coincides with the ITS World Congress, which is expected to draw some 60,000 visitors from 90 countries to Gangneung, and the festival aims to embody the spirit of friendship among those global guests.
Having featured dance as its main theme in 2024 and literature and media art last year, the festival this year broadens its genre experimentation to include illusion and gugak. Two works commissioned by the Haslla International Arts Festival will also receive their world premieres in Gangneung.
Highlights among the main performances include the piano concerto "Beyond the Inner Self" by Kim Taek-su (Oct. 18, with soloist Cho Jae-hyeok), "The Gesture of Sound: Unity of Song, Dance and Music" by Kim Young-sang (composer) and Yoo Hoe-woong (choreographer) with the Seo Eui-cheol Gadan (Oct. 24), and "Light of Haslla: Lee Eun-gyeol X Cho Jae-hyeok — Where Illusion Meets Classical Music" (Oct. 23).
The festival spreads across Gangneung Arts Center and venues throughout the city. The free community concert series "Udeol Music Celebration" adds Gangneung City Hall, Gangneung Daedohobu Gwana and the Gangneung Municipal Museum of Art Solol to its existing roster of Calvary Clinic, Chodang Cathedral, Gangneung Asan Hospital and Arte Museum Gangneung, running seven times from Oct. 15 through Oct. 24.
A "Kids Concert," expanded to two performances this year, will also broaden the festival's reach to family audiences.
The festival opens with "Fateful Love," a performance of Brahms' Double Concerto featuring Fumiaki Miura, Song Young-hoon and the Gangneung City Symphony Orchestra, and closes with "From Love to Passion," a concert by Paik Kun-woo and the Bucheon Philharmonic Orchestra marking the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and France.
Artistic director Cho Jae-hyeok is a pianist and organist who holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the Juilliard School and a doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music. He has performed as a soloist and collaborator on major stages worldwide, including Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall, Cadogan Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie and the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and has consistently pursued cross-genre collaborations with the Korea National Ballet and illusionist Lee Eun-gyeol, among others. He is also known for his engagement with audiences, having pioneered the "Live Lecture Concert" on KBS Classic FM and serving as host of the Seoul Arts Center's "11 O'Clock Concert." He has served as artistic director of the Haslla International Arts Festival since 2024.
Seo Eui-cheol Gadan, a pansori ensemble, is led by Seo Eui-cheol, a certified practitioner of pansori as a national intangible heritage. Seo double-majored in pansori and geomungo at the Korea National University of Arts and graduated at the top of his advanced arts program. He received the Presidential Award in the pansori master division at the 52nd Chunhyang Gugak Competition — the youngest ever to do so — becoming the first in the competition's history to win top honors in both pansori and geomungo. Leading the MZ generation folk ensemble Seo Eui-cheol Gadan, he will take the stage three times at this year's festival: in "Rabbit, Let's Go to the Dragon Palace!" (Oct. 21), "The Gesture of Sound: Unity of Song, Dance and Music" (Oct. 24), and Udeol Music Celebration III (Saturday, Gangneung Daedohobu Gwana).
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