Seoul eyes year‑round festivals
Seoul unveiled plans to become a year‑round festival city — the push to integrate food, music and cultural showcases makes it likely matcha‑centric events (like MatchaFest) will get bigger presence in 2026 programming Korea Herald. The city’s festival expansion ties into rising matcha exports from Japan and a wider boom in matcha desserts and cafe offerings across Asia Nippon.com.
The city’s new branding, presented as "365 Festival City Seoul" (en.sedaily.com), carries quantified targets of 30 million foreign visitors, 60 million total festival attendees and an expected economic impact of 500 billion won. (koreaherald.com) Planners will reconfigure venue geography by creating a Han River festival belt and deliberately moving events into Yeouido, Ttukseom and Banpo to spread foot traffic away from downtown cores. (en.sedaily.com) The 2026 calendar already locks in scaled events that will test the model: the Seoul Spring Festival runs 26 days from April 10 to May 5 across Hangang parks. (english.seoul.go.kr) The Seoul International Garden Show opens May 1 and has been billed by city officials as the largest and longest-running edition in the festival’s history. (english.seoul.go.kr) Seoul is beefing up permanent food programming as part of the package: the K-food market "Knock Knock" drew more than 450,000 visitors last year and will operate Fridays–Sundays from June 22 through year‑end under the city’s expanded schedule. (english.seoul.go.kr) On supply trends, Japan’s green‑tea exports—including matcha—surpassed 10,000 tonnes in 2025 (10,084 tonnes Jan–Oct 2025) as overseas demand surged, and Japan posted ¥36.4 billion in green‑tea export value in 2024. (asahi.com) Commercial matcha events are scaling alongside that supply growth: MatchaFest promotes a broadened 2026 national tour as the "World’s Largest Matcha Festival" (matchafest.com) while auction reports show tencha prices jumping roughly 170% at Kyoto auctions, pushing producers toward higher‑grade powder production. (straitstimes.com)
