Live like royalty at the spring edition of the K-Royal Culture Festival, opening April 25

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Live like royalty at the spring edition of the K-Royal Culture Festival, opening April 25

Published: 09 Apr. 2026, 07:57 Updated: 09 Apr. 2026, 15:29

JIN EUN-SOO
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Foreign visitors to Gyeongbok Palace's take selfies in 2025. [NEWS1]

For those who have wandered through Korea's royal palaces wanting more than just a scenic stroll, the 12th K-Royal Culture Festival, which opens on April 25, offers a deeper dive. Recognizing the surge in global interest in Korean heritage, the nine-day festival this year has introduced new programs and services tailored to foreign visitors.

“We have expanded from 10 to 12 programs for foreigners across the spring and fall editions,” said Kim Kwang-hee, deputy minister at the Korea Heritage Agency, on Tuesday. Of the six programs eligible for pre-reservation by foreigners in the spring edition, two are new: the “Royal Ancestral Ritual Music Nighttime Performance at Jongmyo Shrine” and “The Dance of Crown Prince Hyomyeong and the Moon.”

“Starting this year, we have newly created an English SNS account and located foreign guides on site as well. There are also QR codes in every nook and cranny of the palaces where foreigners can scan and access the English guide of the programs, benefits and more.”

K-Royal Culture Festival is a biannual event that invites visitors from home and abroad for traditional performances, hands-on experiences and guided tours across five palaces in Seoul — Gyeongbok, Deoksu, Changdeok, Changyeong and Gyeonghui Palaces — as well as Jongmyo Shrine, all of which are located in central Seoul.

The official poster for K-Royal Culture Festival's spring edition [KOREA HERITAGE AGENCY]

After receiving a record-breaking 1.37 million visitors last year, the heritage agency hopes to bump up that figure by 20 percent this year on the back of heightened interest in K-culture.

“The day after BTS performed at Gwanghwamun Square on March 21, visitors of Gyeongbok Palace reached 33,000, whereas before it was usually at the 20,000 level. The next Saturday, on March 29, the figure jumped to 53,000,” said Huh Min, director of the Korea Heritage Service.

“This explosive growth means that this heritage is becoming part of people's everyday lives which is why the 12th edition of the K-Culture Royal Festival has expanded its programs.”

“Royal Ancestral Ritual Music Nighttime Performance at Jongmyo Shrine,” newly added to the lineup of foreigner-friendly programs, will run from April 28 to 30 at the shrine’s main hall starting at 8 p.m. The performance will be held once a day and will be free of charge.

A Jongmyo ancestral ritual is performed in the evening on April 30, 2025. [YONHAP]

The Jongmyo ancestral ritual is a composite art form combining instrumental music, song and dance performed to honor the kings and queens of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). It is inscribed on Unesco's Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

“The Dance of Crown Prince Hyomyeong and the Moon," also newly added this year, is a nighttime program at Changdeok Palace combining a guided tour with hands-on activities. Participants take part in preparations for jinjakrye, a royal banquet in which court officials presented alcohol and food to the king and queen on special occasions, by helping Crown Prince Hyomyeong make key decisions.

Traditional royal cuisine created at last year's session of "The Emperor's Dining Table" [KOREA HERITAGE AGENCY]

A signature foreigner-dedicated program, “The Emperor's Dining Table,” will also return with a few updates.

This 80-minute session, where participants cook and then eat royal cuisine while exploring its historic and cultural context, will be conducted in a spoken presentation format this year. This year’s menu will feature the same dishes King Gojong served to Alice Roosevelt, the daughter of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, when she visited Korea in 1905.

“From previous sessions, I've found that foreigners are more willing than expected to embrace our food as it is,” said Lee So-young, a certified trainee of royal food, in charge of the program.

Foreigners take part in last year's session of "The Emperor's Dining Table." [KOREA HERITAGE AGENCY]

“For instance, there is jang [Korea's traditional fermented sauce made with soybean] kimchi, which is a type of kimchi fermented not with salt but with soy sauce, which generates a pungent flavor. We thought it would be a bit hard for the foreigners to take in but surprisingly they all ate it at last year's program, which made us think that they are really accepting our food without judgment. This year, too, we are going to present our royal cuisine as it was originally.”

A morning tour program, “Awakening the Morning Palace” at Changdeok Palace, is also a flagship program for foreigners where they are allowed access to serene mornings at the palace, at a time when it would otherwise be closed to visitors.

“Even if they are all palaces, their architecture all differs greatly,” said Sung Sang-woo, an architect who will guide the tour for the program.

“Changdeok Palace, unlike Gyeongbok Palace, which has vast, flat courtyards, embraces the surrounding hilly landscape. As a result, it reveals unexpected spaces, scenes and hidden courtyards.”

Under the theme “Palaces, Awakening the Arts,” this year’s K-Royal Culture Festival opens amid surging global interest in Korea’s heritage, fueled by hit movies such as “KPop Demon Hunters” (2025) and K-pop acts like BTS incorporating traditional Korean motifs into their performances.

Opening ceremony of last year's K-Royal Culture Festival [KOREA HERITAGE AGENCY]

The opening ceremony, which will be a mix of tradition and modern, will be held on April 24 and directed by Yang Jeong-woong, who served as the artistic director for Korea's cultural events at the APEC summit last year.

Rapper Woo Won-jae and an art troupe from the Korea Heritage Agency will share the stage for a performance of ganggangsullae, a traditional Korean circle dance ritual associated with harvest and fertility that is inscribed on Unesco's Intangible Cultural Heritage list. A hanbok (Korean traditional clothing) fashion show will also be held, set to a soundtrack blending gugak (Korean traditional music) and EDM.

So far, four of the six programs eligible for pre-reservation by foreigners, including the opening ceremony and cooking session, have been sold out.

However, the “Awakening the Morning Palace at Changdeok Palace” program and “Palace Concert” featuring some 100 gugak musicians are still open for booking. Reservations can be made through the Creatrip platform.