Walk along the Han River. Bicycles pass by, and a breeze drifts across the water. Someone lies back on the grass, while someone else chats with a friend. It is the familiar scenery of Seoul we see every day. But this autumn, something strange stirs within that familiar landscape. Eight-meter-tall red giraffes stroll leisurely along the riverside, while a hundred people gather to shout out their desires. An ordinary walking path becomes a performance venue, and a casual stroll becomes an encounter with art.

The Seoul Street Arts Festival, which has long brought citizens together around Seoul Plaza, moves to the Han River in 2026. Taking place from September 19 to 20 at Ttukseom Hangang Park and Seoul Forest, Seoul Street Arts Festival 2026 will present 62 performances of 20 works: nine international works from five countries and 11 Korean works to the public. The festival heads to the Han River, a place where citizens live, rest, and find joy, creating unexpected encounters with art in everyday life. Here are five ways to experience the festival right at your doorstep.

On Veut by Ktha Compagnie, which featured at the Seoul Street Arts Festival 2023, returns this year on an expanded scale. One hundred citizen performers, prepared through prior workshops, take to the streets alongside the artists. Rather than watching the performance, citizens become performers themselves.

Getting slapped nowhere, spilling bats at the Han River by gamjapia unfolds with citizens and bat experts setting out together in search of bats, then moves to the festival grounds, where audiences trace their path along the Han River. Coordinate 442831 by ust project takes the memories of participating citizens as its starting point. Participants draw the homes they carry in their memories; those homes remain or disappear according to a system, forming a map of memory that expands into the story of a city. Citizens are not merely “people who come to watch a show”-they become participants in the work, creating their own scenes.

By relocating to the Han River and Seoul Forest, the festival draws even the surrounding landscape into the performances. In PLANTAR by Chilean arts company Colectivo Refugio, audiences carry plants and roam Seoul Forest guided by audio narration. Behind the city by IMOMENT invites audiences to explore the city with an added layer of imagination. Shared Pathways by Mano a Mana from Brazil transforms ordinary places into spaces of circus and imagination, as if artists have become travelers. There are no fixed seats, no towering stage sets. The landscapes and scenes audiences absorb as they walk become the grandest of stages, leading them into yet another realm of imagination.

Once art finds its way to the Han River, the Han River is no longer the place we once knew. The most dramatic spectacle is Les Girafes, Operette animaliere by Compagnie OFF from France. Seven red giraffes, each eight meters tall, stroll serenely along the Han River while a diva’s voice soars overhead-this parade performance transforms the ordinary Han River into a grand stage. In Voyage, Marine Boy portrays the journey of a man in search of his dream, transforming the Han River from an everyday landscape into a site of adventure.

In Tancarville by French artist G. Bistaki, an ordinary white sheet becomes at once laundry and ghost, landscape and uncanny object. In Pocket Juggling by Slovenian artist Undertree (Uroš Marolt), everyday objects-hands, balls, pockets-and small habits become a language of surprise and rhythm.

Unspoken Duties by MOMURO SALON begins with a bold premise: an air raid shelter has fallen into the Han River. As the repetitive everyday lives of ordinary adults unfold on stage, audiences find themselves looking anew at their own lives through the lens of human relationships and the gaze of others.

Meanwhile, Seoul Forest transforms into a musical stage. The collaborative program “Seoul Stage in Autumn Festa” presents a “Musical Gala Concert,” bringing together the stars of Korean musical theater, and a “University Musical Concert,” featuring students who dream of becoming the next generation of musical stars, all on an outdoor stage in Seoul Forest. It is a moment where the park meets musical theater and is reborn as a stage.

Art encountered in daily life makes us see anew the spaces we so easily overlook and makes us look differently at ordinary objects and routines. Even after the performances are over, walking the same path will reveal things that look a little different from yesterday.

The towering giraffes and unfamiliar movements leave strong impressions, but they ultimately pass away. What lingers long after is the story of people. 52Hz by Korea Traditional Performing Arts Troupe “The GWANGDAE” delivers the message as solitary modern individuals find one another and come together with the warmth and wit of traditional performing arts. International works share the same spirit. Jamais en retraite by Compagnie Zania from France warmly portrays the issues of aging and friendship in our society through circus.

Fish Introspection by French artist Nilda Martinez expresses a range of emotional states through physical movement on the Chinese pole. Lithuanian artist Agnė Muralytė poetically portrays human vulnerability in Je m’evanouis.

These works turn our gaze toward other people, and ultimately toward ourselves. They invite us to confront our own solitude and loneliness while bringing to mind someone who is by our side. At some point, the story of a stranger encountered on the street becomes our own story. It becomes an intimate moment encountered in the most open of spaces.

The Han River and Seoul Forest are where city and nature meet. The art unfolding here reaches beyond the scenes in front of us, expanding into new ways of seeing nature and sensing the city. Intelligence Vegetal by Project NALDA uses aerial performance from the great trees of the city to let audiences sense the connection between earth, tree, forest, and human. Jajeon (Rotation) by FORCE combines scientific imagination with contemporary circus to present a sensory stage. In 231’s Sketchbook by 231’s Show, ideas that once lived only on paper and in drawings come alive as actual movement and scene.

Vocal Space ‘Jogak NooN’ by Liquid Sound deconstructs and recombines traditional Korean vocal music, presenting it with a contemporary sensibility. The work explores how ancient sounds exist and are perceived in modern outdoor spaces. The performance brings sound into the open air, allowing the space itself to be perceived anew through sound. Between nature and city, reality and imagination, sound and space, audiences can sense, connect, and expand across those boundaries.

This year brings further changes. Last year, there was an event where audiences strolled along Cheonggyecheon Stream to take in performances; this year, visitors can enjoy the festival by walking, cycling, or riding the Han River Bus. Building on “Artrekking,” first introduced last year, the festival will curate and introduce performances according to different groups of festivalgoers this year.

When the festival is over, the Han River will look the same as it always has. Cyclists will pass along the riverside, and someone will be sitting on the grass with a friend. But the way we look at that scene may have shifted, just a little. We will find ourselves recalling the red giraffes we met on an ordinary walk, remembering the people we wandered with, and pausing to listen to the trees and sounds we would usually pass without notice. Perhaps that is what it means for a festival to enter everyday life-a small change like that. This autumn, the Seoul Street Arts Festival turns the Han River we have always walked into a space for meeting one another through art and for looking at the ordinary with fresh eyes.