Halloween in Korea Is Saturday 31 October — Not a Holiday, and the Street Scene Has Changed

Bottom line: Halloween 2026 falls on Saturday 31 October. It is not a public holiday in Korea — shops and offices run as normal. People do dress up, but the centre of it has moved from the streets to the theme parks and to events inside individual venues. Seoul has designated 24 October to 2 November a priority safety period and is intensively managing 14 districts where crowds gather.

If you didn't know: two misconceptions matter. The first is thinking Halloween is a Korean public holiday. It is not; 31 October runs like any other day, and this year it simply happens to be a Saturday. The second matters more. Visitors often head to Itaewon or Hongdae expecting a street festival. Since the Itaewon crowd disaster of 2022, Halloween as a street gathering has effectively ended. What is on those streets now is crowd management, not a festival. And one consequence affects your plans directly: when congestion reaches the "very crowded" level, trains pass through the station without stopping. If you planned to get off at Hongik University Station or Itaewon, the train may not stop.

If you want a reliable way to enjoy the season, the theme parks are the better bet. Everland runs to 22 November and Lotte World to 15 November, so you do not have to aim for 31 October — going on a weekday away from Halloween itself means shorter queues. At Lotte World, the After 4 ticket for entry from 4pm costs 12,000 won less than a day pass.

If you do want to see the streets, know what is there. Seoul has made Itaewon, Hongdae, Seongsu, Konkuk, Gangnam, Apgujeong, Myeongdong and Ikseon-dong priority zones, with real-time CCTV counting people. Hongdae alone has 616 safety staff. Barriers and one-way fencing are installed, and displays show how crowded the area is at that moment.

If you end up in a crowd, a few rules carry you through. Do not push against the flow of people. Do not stop to take photos — the force from behind accumulates. Avoid downhill stretches and alleys that narrow. If breathing becomes hard, bring your arms up in front of your chest to hold space and move out with the flow. If an emergency text arrives, do what it says.

The emergency numbers are 119 (fire and ambulance) and 112 (police). If Korean is difficult, call 1330 — the tourist interpretation line, multilingual and open every day — and they will interpret for you.

This is guidance compiled from official sources. The managed areas and measures can change on the day, so check crowding on a map app or the on-site displays before you set out.