Apgujeong Rodeo Street to host world food, music festival Sunday

A street festival featuring food and music from around the world will be held on Apgujeong Rodeo Street in Seoul’s Gangnam District, Sunday, according to the district office.

The 2026 Apgujeong Rodeo Festa will run from 2 to 8 p.m. along the street’s main strip, a fashion, shopping and dining hub in one of the capital’s most affluent neighborhoods.

The annual festival is hosted by the Apgujeong-dong community service center — the neighborhood-level branch of the district office — and organized by the Apgujeong Rodeo Development Committee, a local merchants’ group. It is billed as the neighborhood’s signature event, bringing together merchants, residents and visitors from Korea and abroad.

This year’s edition takes world cuisine as its theme and turns the entire street into a stage. It opens with a performance by a team of foreign K-pop cover dancers, who recreate the choreography of K-pop songs. Other programs include a street “noraebang,” or Korean-style karaoke, where residents can sing live, as well as relay DJ performances and a DJ set by Hyebin, a member of girl group Momoland.

Visitors can also try hands-on activities such as nail art, bookmark making, miniature gardening, beaded bracelet making and calligraphy.

A special exhibition will display 50 works by participants in an artificial intelligence (AI) photo class held at the community service center in September. Participants learned to use AI to turn faded old photographs into moving video clips.

Twelve food booths, including some run by local restaurants, will also be set up, which the district expects to help revitalize the local commercial area.

“The world food culture pop-up store is a place of unity prepared by Apgujeong Rodeo merchants,” the committee’s chairman said. “We hope residents and tourists alike will come together through world cultures.”

The head of the community service center said the festival “shows at a glance the charm and dynamism of Apgujeong, a Gangnam hot spot.”

This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.