The '2026 DMZ OPEN Festival', hosted by Gyeonggi Province, runs from September to November this year across the border region. Its slogan is 'Opening the Line to Connect Lives'. Over three months, music, exhibitions and peace programs will be staged on land close to the dividing line.
The festival is built around music, exhibitions and peace programs. Music that offers sound, exhibitions that hold the eye for a long while, and peace programs that address the subject of division head-on form its framework. The detailed lineup and performers await announcement.
Recalling the texture of the border region gives some sense of why this undertaking is a difficult one. Wire fencing raised red with spreading rust, cement guard posts drained of color by wind and rain, dry silver grass reaching to the ankles. As autumn deepens, that silver grass brushes against itself and makes a low sound all day.
To set a stage on top of it is also to work with silence. It is a stillness that remains because people have long stayed away, and the moment an audience walks in, that stillness thins little by little. When a festival says it will turn a boundary into a passage, the calculations of those doing the turning and those doing the guarding are not the same.
Even so, the choice of keeping this land closed carries a price of its own. For people living in the border region, the dividing line does not stop at an idea but works as a condition of daily life, and land left empty for a long time loses its stories. The reason the festival has set aside a span as long as three months can be read here too.
Using a whole season moves the audience somewhat away from being guests who step off a tour bus, take photographs and go home. The river wind of September and the frost of November show the same land with a different face. Whether the local community can remain an owner rather than staying in the festival's background will also become clear within that long stretch.
Admission fees, the reservation method and the sites where individual programs will be held are not yet confirmed. Given the nature of the border region, access conditions may differ from stretch to stretch, so it is better to check the organizer's guidance as the schedule comes out before making a move. The silver grass is at its best from late October to early November, and the riverside on those mornings is worth a visit regardless of the festival programs.
Event Information
Dates: September-November 2026
Venue: Gyeonggi border region
Host: Gyeonggi Province
Admission: Details not yet announced
