7.68 Million People Visited Jamsu Bridge Festival Over Five Years; Attendance Up 4.6-Fold

[Financial News] Seoul’s ‘Car-Free Jamsu Bridge Ttukttuk Festival,’ held every Sunday on Jamsu Bridge, recorded a cumulative 7.68 million visitors over five years. Annual attendance, which stood at 520,000 in its first year, rose to about 4.6 times that figure this year, while cumulative sales from food trucks, market stalls and other vendors reached approximately 6.6 billion won.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government said on the 4th that 2.38 million people attended this year’s ‘2026 Car-Free Jamsu Bridge Ttukttuk Festival,’ which ended on the 25th of last month. That was an increase of 1.1 million (85.9%) from last year’s 1.28 million, marking the highest attendance since the festival was first held in 2022.
Annual attendance surged from 520,000 in 2022 to 2 million in 2023, then declined to 1.5 million in 2024 and 1.28 million in 2025. This year, however, it rebounded to 2.38 million, setting a new record. The festival was held 15 times in total across spring and fall this year, with an average of approximately 159,000 visitors per event day.
Sales generated at the festival also rose sharply along with attendance. Cumulative sales from paid programs—including the ‘Moonlight Restaurant’ food truck, the ‘Moonlight Shop’ handicraft stall, and the ‘Seoro Market,’ which features local farmers—totaled 6.57412 billion won over the four years from 2023 through this year.
Annual sales more than doubled, rising from 1.042 billion won in 2023 to 2.57912 billion won this year.
This year, events combining food with nighttime cultural programs were a key driver of growth in attendance and sales. The Seoul Metropolitan Government attributed the increase to adjusting the festival’s operating hours in the second half of the year to run from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. and expanding nighttime food events, including ‘Jamsu Bridge Gourmet Road’ and ‘Jamsu Bridge Chicken Day’
More than 244,000 people visited ‘Jamsu Bridge Gourmet Road,’ held on the 4th of last month, in a single day, making it the most attended event in the festival’s five-year history. Sales that day also set a record at 509.11 million won. ‘Jamsu Bridge Chicken Day’ generated 220.92 million won in sales.
A variety of programs, including performances and hands-on activities, also drew visitors beyond the food offerings. They included ‘Jamsu Bridge Summer Cinema,’ where people watched films on a Hangang River bridge, as well as a community sports day, water activities and yoga. Programs also gave residents the opportunity to perform music and take part in shows themselves.
In a festival satisfaction survey, 98.0% of respondents said they were satisfied, while 97.5% said they intended to visit again.
Meanwhile, this year marked the end of the Jamsu Bridge festival in the format it had followed since 2022. The Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to begin work to transform Jamsu Bridge from a vehicle-oriented bridge into a pedestrian- and culture-focused space, and to resume the festival in the newly developed space in the second half of next year.
Park Jin-young, head of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Future Hangang Headquarters, said, “With the interest and participation of residents and tourists, the Car-Free Jamsu Bridge Ttukttuk Festival recorded a cumulative 7.68 million visitors over five years and was able to grow into one of Seoul’s signature festivals. We will do our utmost to present a wide range of programs in the newly reborn Jamsu Bridge cultural space as well, so that it will be loved as one of Seoul’s signature leisure spaces that residents enjoy visiting.”
[email protected] Seong Cho-rong Reporter