Cheers! Autumn beer festivals bubble up in Seoul

Visitors enjoy draft beer with dried snacks during last year's beer festival at Jungbu Market in central Seoul. Courtesy of Jung District

As Seoul finally begins to cool off from the summer heat, beer festivals are springing up across the capital, bringing together craft brewers, local flavors and cultural traditions in crowded markets and along scenic riverbanks.

On Friday and Saturday, Baeknyeon Market in northeastern Seoul and the picturesque Ui Stream will host the 2025 Gangbuk Baekmaek Festival.

Since its debut in 2023, the festival has drawn nearly 58,000 visitors by purportedly offering a hundred kinds of street food alongside beer at 68 stalls, with most items priced below 10,000 won ($7).

Beer enthusiasts can sample offerings from 12 breweries from across the country, ranging from familiar lagers to experimental craft flavors that reflect Korea’s evolving beer scene.

Evening performances held at the main stage along Ui Stream include well-known acts from ballad to pop, as well as busking. Event zones are planned for family picnics, romantic riverside camping, DJ parties and unique photo areas celebrating the community’s lively spirit.

Meanwhile, Seocho District in southern Seoul is hosting evening parties for beer enthusiasts every Friday in September from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Dubbed "Shinbi Party," the event is open to guests 19 and older and will turn the streets around Ssarijae Park between Sinsa and Nonhyeon subway stations into an urban beer garden, offering unlimited draft beer for patrons spending more than 10,000 won at stores in the surrounding Jamwon-dong commercial district.

The festival seeks to enliven the area by mixing nostalgia with new flavors, attracting younger crowds and reinforcing Seocho’s local identity.

The event will feature LED-lit tables, playful balloon decorations and mascot photo zones, creating a festive mood for an evening outdoors. There will also be interactive activities including DJ performances, competitive beer-drinking games and quiz events.

Jungbu Market in central Seoul’s Jung District, a traditional market founded in 1957 and now one of the capital’s largest centers for dried seafood stores, will host the eighth annual Dried Seafood Beer Festival this Friday from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Across the sprawling corridors between the market's 412 stalls, visitors can enjoy affordable platters of local dried snacks paired with cold draft beer, priced at just 1,000 won per glass.

The event will also feature “Squid Game”-themed contests, live music and immersive photo booths.