The 38th Goyang Haengju Cultural Festival will be held around Haengju Fortress (행주산성) for two days, on June 13 and 14. The event marks the victory at the Battle of Haengju in 1593, and a victory reenactment parade and resident participation programs will run over the two days. The festival takes place on a low hill overlooking the Han River, and along its ridge remains an old wall of mixed earth and stone.
The most prominent item on the program is the victory reenactment parade. A procession in armor and with banners moves along the road to the beat of drums. The reenactment does not end on a stage but proceeds on the road, so the line between those watching and those walking blurs.
Resident participation programs will run alongside. This means the hands that make the festival belong not only to outside organizers but also to people from the neighborhood, and it is not uncommon for the faces on stage and the faces in the audience to know one another.
The fortress is a heritage site, and heritage sites wear down the more people tread on them. The earth of the wall is washed by rain and pressed down by footsteps, and once a section collapses it is hard to restore. Opening the form of commemoration widely to draw people and protecting the ground those people will walk over pull in opposite directions.
Even so, closing the site off is not the answer either. The wall was built in the first place for people to defend, and without anyone defending it, it remains only a fold in the hill. The reason the festival returns to this hill every year is to hold memory to a physical place. How far the visitor route opens and where it is closed off is best checked on site.
Since it is a two-day event, anyone going for only one day would do better to set an order in advance. The parade passes once at a set time, and the resident programs fill the intervals between.
The event runs for two days, on June 13 and 14, around Haengju Fortress. The victory reenactment parade and the resident participation programs are each held at set times.
Event Information
Dates: June 13 (Sat) - 14 (Sun), 2026
Venue: Haengju Fortress area
Main programs: Victory reenactment parade, resident participation programs
