Festivals, sights across Korea

The Busan Sea Festival, now in its 30th edition, runs through Aug. 13 at Dadaepo Beach in Busan. One of the city's signature summer events, it is set against the beach's wide sea views and sunsets, with most programs free and a few paid.

This year's edition emphasizes the involvement of the city's young residents and partnerships with local businesses. The opening ceremony on Friday features the Dadae Fireworks Show, staged against the beach's open horizon.

Main attractions include a sunset beach club with a pub and club stage, food-and-drink stages and a youth zone. Side programs include a fountain playground and the Dadae Beach Market.

KIMA Week, an annual marine leisure festival held in Busan since 2013, runs through August, featuring a mix of beachside events, water sports and a national rowing competition. The festival is co-hosted by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the Busan Metropolitan Government and organized by the Korea Marine Leisure Network.

The KIMA Beach event zone at Dadaepo operates through Sunday from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., offering experience booths, a flea market, indie band performances, film screenings and sunset yoga.

Paid marine leisure programs, running through Aug. 31, are offered on-site, including yachting, cruises, surfing and jet boat rides at Dadaepo, Songjeong and Gwangalli. Registration is available through the Holic Gem app.

The festival also features a national beach rowing competition at Dadaepo Beach this weekend.

Everland's Midsummer Night Firefly Festival runs through Aug. 30.

The program invites visitors to see thousands of fireflies each night in an indoor forest, an ecology experience the park has run since 2017. Fireflies are considered an indicator of clean environments and are rarely seen in cities.

This year the experience is free, and the grounds have been redesigned around a camping theme, with photo zones, lighting and a nature-study area on firefly life cycles.

Visitors first enter an indoor space where staff explain how fireflies develop and why they glow, then move to a darkened forest room where the insects light up around them.

The firefly experience runs daily from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Lost Valley education center in roughly 15-minute sessions.

The Boryeong Mud Festival runs through Sunday. Korea's biggest summer festival invites visitors to get messy at Daecheon Beach in Boryeong, South Chungcheong Province.

Slather on mineral-rich mud at the main zone, dodge mud water cannons during the Mud Mob Scene or keep things gentler at the family and water park zones. By day, mud slides and attractions cut through the heat. By night, drone shows light up the sea alongside K-pop, trot and hip-hop concerts.

General admission runs 12,000 won on weekdays and 16,000 won on weekends, with discounted family passes available.

The Semiwon Lotus Culture Festival runs through Aug. 17 at Semiwon, a garden in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province. Surrounded on three sides by Paldang Lake, it contains about 270 plant species.

The festival coincides with the lotus flowering season. Included are a special exhibition at the Lotus Museum titled "Lotus, Embroidering Life's Wishes," outdoor concerts, a stamp tour, craft classes and guided walks.

Semiwon was designated Gyeonggi Province's first provincial garden in June 2019. The site marks where scholar Jeong Yak-yong built a pontoon bridge across the South Han River in the Joseon era.

Admission is 7,000 won for adults and 4,000 won for children, seniors and groups.