Korea Grand Festival 2026 (29 Oct–15 Nov): Free Seoul Palaces, Duty-Free Up to 50%, and Which Discounts a Foreign Visitor Can Actually Use

Last updated: September 2026. The 2026 dates and plan are from the Ministry of Economy and Finance's policy briefing of 3 July 2026 and the festival's official site (koreagrandfestival.kr), with details reported by Etoday, Newspim and Herald Business the same day and Seoul Shinmun on 23 August. The 2025 precedent is from the ten ministries' joint release of 28 October 2025, the Korea Customs Service, and the palace office's notices. Several 2026 details have not been announced yet; this guide says so wherever that is the case, and will be updated when they are.

The Korea Grand Festival (코리아 그랜드 페스티벌) is the government's autumn spending festival: ten ministries putting shop discounts, duty-free sales, free heritage sites and airport welcome events into one window. In 2026 it runs for 18 days, from Thursday 29 October to Sunday 15 November, six days longer than last year's twelve. The official site is in Korean only and does not open fully until 29 October, and every English page we found describes the 2025 edition.

That matters for a visitor because the festival mixes two kinds of benefit. Some are open to anyone with a passport: duty-free discounts of up to 50 percent at the 26 stores the government names, free entry to the palaces and other heritage sites, welcome kits at the airport and free performances. Others are built for residents: the lodging coupons, the 10 percent digital Onnuri discount, the consumption lottery. Korean headlines add them all together. This guide separates them, gives the dates that are already fixed, and marks what the government has not yet said about 2026.

Deoksugung (덕수궁) in early November, the same week of the year the festival runs. In 2025 the four palaces, Jongmyo and the royal tombs were free for the whole festival. Photo: 라성민, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (2017).

A duty-free week ends at the check-in scale: an Etekcity digital luggage scale weighs the bag in the hotel room, before the airline charges you for the extra skincare. As an Amazon Associate, EpicKor earns from qualifying purchases.

Quick Guide: Korea Grand Festival 2026 for a foreign visitor

What the festival is, and what is new in 2026

The festival began in 2025 as a way to lift domestic spending in the autumn, by joining discounts that used to run separately: the old Korea Sale Festa for shops, a duty-free festival run by customs, lodging coupons, market vouchers and free cultural sites. The 2025 edition ran for twelve days, 29 October to 9 November, and the government counted 37,000 retail companies taking part.

For 2026 the economic ministers' meeting of 3 July set the dates at 29 October to 15 November, with ten ministries involved: the finance, SMEs, science, interior, culture, agriculture, oceans and trade ministries, the prime minister's office and the Korea Customs Service. The opening event will be held on 29 October in the old town of Andong, North Gyeongsang, chosen through an open call to regional governments outside the capital area. Seoul Shinmun reported in August that about 30,000 companies will take part.

The shop discounts have a new name: the K-Sale Festa (K-세일페스타), formerly Korea Sale Festa, running on the same eighteen days. Companies can sign up until 25 October, which is why the list of participating brands is not yet public. The organisers say they will strengthen promotions aimed at foreign residents and visitors, without saying how.

Free palaces: what is announced, and what 2025 looked like

The 2026 plan promises "free opening of the four palaces and other national heritage sites" during the festival. That is the whole announcement so far: the palace office's notice board had nothing on it as of mid-September, so the list of sites, the dates and any exceptions are still to come. In 2025 the details were published about twelve days before the festival opened.

What the 2025 festival did gives a fair picture of what to expect:

• Free entry for the whole festival at Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, Deoksugung and Changgyeonggung, Jongmyo, the Joseon royal tombs and the King Sejong heritage site.
• Closure days still applied: Gyeongbokgung and Jongmyo closed on the Tuesday, the others on the Monday.
• Changdeokgung's Secret Garden was not included; it kept its paid, booked tours.
• No booking was needed, and Jongmyo, normally a guided-tour site on most days, switched to free wandering for the period, with its guided tours still running on schedule.

Nobody needed to prove anything to walk in, which is why this is the benefit most worth planning around. If 2026 repeats the pattern, the dates to avoid are the closure days: Monday 2 and 9 November for Changdeokgung, Deoksugung and Changgyeonggung, and Tuesday 3 and 10 November for Gyeongbokgung and Jongmyo.

Jongmyo's Jeongjeon hall in November. During the 2025 festival, Jongmyo was open for free wandering rather than its usual timed tours. Photo: Cultural Heritage Administration, Wikimedia Commons, KOGL Type 1 (2012).

Two free-entry rules exist regardless of the festival. Every Wednesday is now Culture Day, and from 7 October Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung and Jongmyo join Deoksugung and the royal tombs in being free every Wednesday; Gyeongbokgung stays free only on the last Wednesday of the month. The festival's Wednesdays are 4 and 11 November, and the day before it opens, Wednesday 28 October, is a last Wednesday, when every palace is free. Separately, anyone wearing hanbok, anyone 18 or under and anyone 65 or over gets in free on any open day. Our palace free Wednesday guide has the full rules, and our hanbok rental guide covers what counts as hanbok.

There is a reason to go this year rather than next. The palace office is revising admission prices for the first time since 2005: the level is expected to be decided around November and applied from January 2027. A 2026 free-entry festival, if it happens as planned, would be the last one before the new prices.

Two things at the palaces during the festival are already fixed:

• Changgyeonggung's night viewing is suspended from 10 to 15 November, the festival's last week.
• Gyeongbokgung's Geunjeongjeon terrace (근정전 월대) is restricted until 31 October, which covers the festival's first three days.

Duty-free: up to 50 percent, and how it differs from a tax refund

The duty-free part is the one aimed squarely at visitors. The 2026 plan says 26 duty-free stores nationwide will run discounts of up to 50 percent. The number is not new: English and Korean reports used 26 in 2025 too, while the Korea Customs Service counted 22 stores plus the online duty-free shops. Read it as "every major duty-free operator", not as a list of 26 addresses.

In 2025 the duty-free event, called the Korea Duty-Free Festa, ran longer than the festival itself, from 29 October to 30 November, at airport, port and city-centre stores in Incheon, Seoul, Busan and Jeju, with online and offline discounts and gifts. The 2026 dates have not been announced, so do not assume the sale stops on 15 November.

Lotte's Myeongdong flagship building, home of Lotte Duty Free's main city store on its upper floors. Photo: Leeinm, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (2023).

Duty-free shopping works differently from the tax refund you get at Olive Young or a department store. At a duty-free store you show your passport and flight details, pay a price without tax, and usually collect the goods at the airport after security. At an ordinary shop you pay the full price and get the VAT back through an instant or airport tax refund, from ₩15,000 a receipt. Both are open to you; the festival discount applies to the first. Our tax refund guide explains the second, and our airport exchange guide covers changing money before you shop.

Airport welcome events and free performances

The 2026 plan mentions airport welcome events to steer arriving visitors toward regional trips and spending, and free performances at the National Theatre of Korea. Neither has dates yet.

In 2025 the welcome week ran from 23 October to 9 November at Incheon Airport and other entry points, timed to the APEC meetings, with tourist information, interpreting help, a welcome kit with traditional-culture goods and photo zones. The 2026 dates may differ because they were set around APEC last year. If you land during the festival, look for the booths after baggage claim.

K-Sale Festa: the shop discounts

The K-Sale Festa is the part most Koreans mean by the festival: discounts on food, fashion, beauty, cars and home appliances, from department stores and big brands to small online sellers, including platforms such as Naver Sangsaeng Market, Lotte On and Hmall. Shelf-price discounts in a shop apply to anyone who walks in. Three kinds of offer usually do not reach a visitor: card-company cashbacks and bill discounts tied to Korean-issued cards, points on Korean membership apps, and online deals that need a Korean phone number to check out.

In 2025 there were also reverse-direct-purchase sales for buyers abroad: up to 20 percent in a "Korea Special Zone" on eBay and Shopee, and up to 30 percent on global K-beauty stores such as Olive Young's. The 2026 version has not been announced, but it is worth checking after you get home if you ran out of luggage space.

What a visitor cannot use

The lodging coupons are the benefit most likely to be misread in English. The "70,000" in the Korean plan is the number of coupons, not their value; the ministry's 15 September release puts the total at about 80,000, including 10,000 for islands. The discounts themselves are ₩20,000 on a stay of ₩20,000 to ₩70,000, ₩30,000 on ₩70,000 or more, and ₩70,000 on multi-night stays of ₩140,000 or more, with a separate island edition worth ₩30,000 or ₩50,000. They cover the regions outside the capital area (Sejong and North Chungcheong excepted), and the coupons are handed out first come, first served from 10:00 each day through Korean booking sites. For a Seoul hotel they do not apply at all; our Seoul hotel price guide is the better planning tool.

Planning the dates

Changgyeonggung's greenhouse (대온실) in mid-November. The palace's night viewing pauses for the festival's final week this year. Photo: Cultural Heritage Administration, Wikimedia Commons, KOGL Type 1 (2012).

The festival also overlaps the end of the autumn colour in Seoul, which our foliage forecast puts in early to mid-November, and it comes after two other events you might confuse with it. The Royal Culture Festival at the palaces runs 7–11 October, so it is over before this festival starts. The Korea Grand Sale, a separate winter discount campaign for foreign visitors, ran from December to February last season and has not announced 2026–27 dates. Our Korea festival calendar puts all of them on one page.

What English guides get wrong

• Dates from last year. The English pages that rank for "Korea Grand Festival" describe the 2025 edition, 29 October to 9 November. The 2026 festival is six days longer.
• "Up to 40 percent" at duty-free. One widely read English guide gave 40 percent in 2025; the government's figure was up to 50 percent, in both years.
• Free palaces with no exceptions. In 2025 the closure days and the Secret Garden were excluded, and Jongmyo's free wandering was a change most guides did not mention.
• Everything available to everyone. The lodging coupons, Onnuri discount and payback are listed alongside the duty-free sale, but a short-stay visitor can use only some of these benefits.

Visitors in hanbok at Gyeongbokgung in November 2019. Hanbok gets anyone in free on any open day, festival or not. Photo: Ethan Doyle White, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

FAQ

Q: When is the Korea Grand Festival 2026? From Thursday 29 October to Sunday 15 November 2026, 18 days. The 2025 edition ran for 12 days, 29 October to 9 November.

Q: Are Seoul's palaces free during the Korea Grand Festival? The 2026 plan includes free opening of the four palaces and other heritage sites, but the sites and dates had not been announced as of September 2026. In 2025 the four palaces, Jongmyo, the royal tombs and the King Sejong site were free for the whole festival, except on their closure days, and the Secret Garden was excluded.

Q: Can foreign tourists get the Korea Grand Festival discounts? Some of them. Duty-free sales, free palace entry, airport welcome events and shop shelf discounts are open to visitors. Lodging coupons, digital Onnuri discounts, the consumption lottery and Korean card-company offers are built for residents.

Q: How much is the duty-free discount? Up to 50 percent at the 26 duty-free stores the government names. In 2025 the duty-free sale ran until 30 November, longer than the festival; the 2026 sale dates have not been announced.

Q: Can I use the Korean lodging coupons in Seoul? No. The ministry says the 2026 lodging coupons go to Korean nationals, and the sale covers regions outside Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi, and stays must be between 22 September and 8 November.

Q: Is there an English website for the festival? Not as of September 2026. The official site, koreagrandfestival.kr, is in Korean and opens fully on 29 October.

Sources

• Ministry of Economy and Finance via Korea.kr policy briefing (3 July 2026): festival dates 29 Oct–15 Nov 2026, 70,000 lodging coupons (about 80,000 with the island edition per the Culture Ministry release of 15 September 2026, via Financial News and Segye Ilbo; Korean nationals only), digital Onnuri 7% to 10%.
• Etoday (3 July and 14 July 2026), Newspim and Herald Business (3 July 2026): ten ministries, 26 duty-free stores up to 50%, airport welcome events, free heritage sites and National Theatre performances, island lodging coupons, consumption lottery for Onnuri users.
• Seoul Shinmun (23 August 2026): Andong opening, about 30,000 companies. Kyosu Shinmun (7 September 2026): K-Sale Festa renaming, sign-up 4 Sep–25 Oct.
• Official site koreagrandfestival.kr (read 16 September 2026); Korea Tourism Organization lodging sale page ktostay.visitkorea.or.kr: coupon amounts, regions, issue and stay dates 22 Sep–8 Nov 2026.
• Ten ministries' joint release, "Korea Grand Festival main benefits" (28 October 2025); Royal Palaces and Tombs Center notice on Jongmyo (27 October 2025); Yonhap (29 October 2025): 2025 free heritage sites and exclusions, airport welcome week 23 Oct–9 Nov.
• Korea Customs Service via Ilgan NTN (30 October 2025): Korea Duty-Free Festa 29 Oct–30 Nov 2025, 22 stores plus online.
• Korea.kr (August 2025 and 20 January 2026): consumption payback conditions and end.
• Royal Palaces and Tombs Center notices (August–September 2026): Changgyeonggung night viewing suspended 10–15 Nov, Geunjeongjeon terrace restricted to 31 Oct. Hankook Ilbo (11 August 2026): palace admission prices to be decided around November and applied from January 2027.
• Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (17 December 2025): Korea Grand Sale 2025–26.