Gyeongsangbuk-do Events

The province’s calendar is built on heritage, and its main event is a genuine folk tradition rather than a staged one.

Andong Mask Dance Festival — late September to early October

Ten days built around the Hahoe byeolsingut talnori, a village ritual drama in carved wooden masks that goes back at least to the Goryeo period. The play is satire: a monk seduced, a corrupt aristocrat and a scholar exposed as fools by a butcher and an old widow, performed by commoners in a rigidly stratified society on the one occasion a year when it was permitted. The masks themselves are national treasures, carved with hinged jaws so that the expression changes as the dancer moves. The festival brings troupes from Korea and abroad to perform alongside it, with parades, workshops and performances in Andong and out at the Hahoe village, plus a night of burning firework ropes strung above the river. It is UNESCO-listed and the single best cultural occasion in the province.

Silla Cultural Festival — October, Gyeongju

Processions, reconstructed court ritual, lantern displays around the tumuli and performances across the old capital.

Yeongdeok snow crab season — November to May

Not a festival exactly, but the coast road fills and the town holds a crab festival in the spring.

Mungyeong tea bowl festival — late April or May

The old pass town has made ceramics for centuries and holds a festival around its traditional climbing kilns, with firings, sales and demonstrations.

Cherry blossom — early April, Gyeongju

Ten days when the roads around the tumuli and Bomun lake are lined with blossom, and the town is at its busiest.