Chuseok usually means closed shutters and a quiet city, but this year the National Museum of Korea's front plaza turns into a free open-air stage — and on the last day of the holiday window, pansori singer Kim Junsu shares it with fusion band Second Moon. No ticket, no reservation, no membership.
What Is Kim Junsu's Free Pansori Set at the National Museum of Korea?
Kim Junsu's Chuseok set is a free, walk-up pansori performance with fusion band Second Moon on the Open Plaza (열린마당) of the National Museum of Korea in Yongsan, central Seoul, staged as the closing day of the museum's 2026 "The ART SPOT Series." It runs on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026 — the final day of this year's Chuseok break — in two roughly 50-minute sets at 13:00 and 15:00, with no ticket, RSVP or membership required .source
Quick Answer: Pansori singer Kim Junsu performs with fusion band Second Moon on Sept. 27, 2026 at the National Museum of Korea's Open Plaza in Yongsan, Seoul — two free 50-minute sets at 13:00 and 15:00, part of the ART SPOT Series running Sept. 24, 26 and 27. No ticket or reservation; seating is first-come.source
Pansori is a Korean narrative singing form in which one vocalist performs an entire story accompanied by a single barrel drum (buk), and Kim Junsu — the JYJ member who has built a pansori practice over recent years — pairs it here with Second Moon, a band known for arranging Korean traditional material with contemporary instrumentation. The billing is the museum's, not a promoter's: the ART SPOT Series has been co-organized with the Korea Traditional Performing Arts Foundation since 2018 to present Korean performing arts to holiday visitors .
The date matters more than usual this year. The National Museum of Korea's own visitor-information page lists its 2026 closure days as January 1, Seollal (Feb. 17) and Chuseok Day, Friday Sept. 25 . The Korea Tourism Organization dates the official 2026 holiday as Thursday Sept. 24 to Saturday Sept. 26, with Chuseok itself falling on Friday Sept. 25 and the practical break running through Sunday Sept. 27 . So the museum is dark exactly one day, and the ART SPOT stage runs on the other three — Sept. 24, 26 and 27. Kim Junsu's set sits on the last of them.
Practical shape of the thing, for anyone planning around it:
- Where: Open Plaza (열린마당), National Museum of Korea, Yongsan-gu, central Seoul.
- When: Sept. 27, 2026 — two sets, 13:00 and 15:00, about 50 minutes each.source
- Cost: Free. The museum's permanent exhibition is also free; only special exhibitions are ticketed .
- Seating: Open plaza, first-come. Wheelchair seating is provided.
- Booking: None. Turning up is the whole procedure.
Because there is no reservation system, the only real variable is arrival time — the plaza fills from the steps inward, and the 13:00 set draws the museum's morning crowd as it spills back outdoors.source
The Art Spot Series: Full Chuseok 2026 Lineup, Day by Day
The Art Spot Series is the National Museum of Korea's holiday performance program, staged free in the Open Plaza (열린마당) and running twice a day — 13:00 and 15:00, roughly 50 minutes per set — on Sept. 24, 26 and 27, 2026 . Six ensembles fill those six slots, and Kim Junsu's pansori set with Second Moon closes the run on the final day. The series has been produced since 2018 with the Korea Traditional Performing Arts Foundation, built specifically around visitors who are in Seoul over a holiday rather than a regular concert season .source
The programming logic is visible across the three days: the opening day leans percussive and orchestral, the middle day moves into vocal and yeonhui (folk performance-play) territory, and the closing day pairs a contemporary performer group with a pansori-plus-band collaboration. Sept. 24 opens with the Gyeol Korean Traditional Orchestra and Samul Gwangdae — rendered as "GamulGwangdae" in some English coverage. Sept. 26 carries Sori ON and Yeonhui Company Yuhee (U-hee Company). Sept. 27 has performer group Cheorat (Cheer-art) before Kim Junsu and Second Moon. Note that the museum is dark on Chuseok Day itself, Friday, Sept. 25, so there is no performance that day .
| Date (2026) | 13:00 set | 15:00 set | Set length | Admission |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thu, Sept. 24 | Gyeol Korean Traditional Orchestra | Samul Gwangdae (GamulGwangdae) | approx. 50 min | Free, no booking |
| Fri, Sept. 25 (Chuseok Day) | Museum closed — no performances | — | — | |
| Sat, Sept. 26 | Sori ON | Yeonhui Company Yuhee (U-hee Company) | approx. 50 min | Free, no booking |
| Sun, Sept. 27 | Cheorat (Cheer-art) | Pansori singer Kim Junsu with Second Moon | approx. 50 min | Free, no booking |
Two scheduling details are worth planning around. First, the museum's own hours differ by day: 09:30–17:30 on Thursday and Sunday, and 09:30–21:00 on Saturday, with the outdoor gardens open 07:00–22:00 daily . The Sept. 26 date therefore leaves the longest runway to stay on-site after the 15:00 set. Second, the Chuseok window is a national free-admission period across major cultural institutions — the four palaces, Jongmyo and the Joseon Royal Tombs all waive entry across the same days , which means the plaza audience is partly holiday overflow rather than a dedicated concert crowd.
If you can only take one day, the Sept. 27 pairing is the one with the clearest hook for anyone coming from a music-first interest: pansori sung against Second Moon's fusion arrangements is the closest the lineup gets to the crossover sound most international listeners already know. If you want the widest sampling instead, Sept. 24 covers orchestral and percussion traditions in a single afternoon. Both 13:00 and 15:00 sets are separately ticketless, so attending both on one day costs nothing beyond the wait .
Getting to the National Museum of Korea: Address, Transit and Best Time to Go
The National Museum of Korea sits at 137 Seobinggo-ro, Yongsan-gu, in central Seoul, and the simplest approach is Ichon Station on Seoul Subway Line 4 and the Gyeongui-Jungang Line, Exit 2, which links to the museum grounds by an underground passage . That matters during Chuseok because the subway is the transport mode that behaves normally over the holiday — Seoul's subways and city buses keep regular schedules while intercity KTX and express-bus seats sell out, according to the Korea Tourism Organization .
Plan to be on the plaza 20 to 30 minutes before either the 13:00 or 15:00 set. The performances are staged in the Open Plaza (열린마당), which is an outdoor, uncovered space, so seating and standing room fill on a first-arrival basis rather than by ticket — and holiday foot traffic in Yongsan runs heavier than a normal weekday afternoon. Wheelchair seating is provided at the venue. Because the whole event is free, there is no reservation queue to hedge against a late arrival; the only currency is time spent waiting.
Pairing the concert with the galleries is straightforward, since the museum itself is open on all three performance days. Its own visitor-information page lists 2026 closures as January 1, Seollal (Feb 17) and Chuseok Day, Friday Sept 25 — meaning Sept. 24, 26 and 27 operate normally . Standard hours are 09:30–17:30 on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday, extending to 21:00 on Wednesday and Saturday, while the outdoor gardens run 07:00–22:00 daily . The permanent exhibition is free year-round; only special exhibitions carry a ticket price .
A workable shape for the day:
- Morning (09:30–12:30): permanent galleries, free entry, before the plaza crowd builds.
- 12:30: move outside to the Open Plaza and claim a spot.
- 13:00 and 15:00: the two 50-minute sets, with roughly an hour between them for the gardens or the museum cafés.
- Saturday, Sept. 26 only: galleries stay open to 21:00, so the 15:00 set can be followed by another two hours indoors.
One caution on scheduling: confirm the same-day running order on the museum's own site before you travel. Holiday programming can shift which ensemble takes which slot, and the museum's notice board is the page that reflects late changes first . If you are arriving from Incheon on the same day, the AREX express reaches Seoul Station in about 45 minutes for roughly USD 7, with the all-stop train at about USD 3.50 (video: Angelica & Aileen Wanders) — Seoul Station to Ichon is a short Line 4 ride from there .
Beyond the Concert: Other Free Museum Programs Running the Same Days
Two other free programs run inside the same Chuseok window and do not collide with the Art Spot Series' 13:00 and 15:00 sets: the National Folk Museum of Korea's "All Together for Hangawi" on Sept. 26–27, and free admission across all four branches of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) from Sept. 24 through Sept. 27 . Both are within one subway ride of Yongsan, so a single day can realistically cover two or three of them.
National Folk Museum of Korea | 관광
The National Folk Museum sits on the Gyeongbokgung grounds in Jongno-gu and stages "모두 함께 한가위" (All Together for Hangawi) on Sept. 26 and 27 at both its main hall and its Paju branch, with every program free . The hands-on side is folk-game heavy — ssireum wrestling clinics and a tournament, threshing and rice-straw crafting, and folk-game relays that cover jegichagi shuttlecock kicking and gomusin rubber-shoe tossing. The stage side is where the intangible-heritage repertoire lands: Suyeong Nongcheong-nori, a Busan-designated intangible heritage, plus the national intangible heritages Cheoyongmu and Ganggangsullae, the Jindo drum dance, and Wonju Maeji Nongak on the 27th . Note the one hard exclusion: the museum is closed on Chuseok Day, Friday Sept. 25, so this is a 26th–27th plan only.
📋 주소 · Gyeongbokgung grounds, Jongno-gu, Seoul · Sept. 26–27 program days, closed Sept. 25 · 대표 프로그램: ssireum, ganggangsullae, Wonju Maeji Nongak
💡 Ganggangsullae here is the second of two chances this holiday — the Korean Folk Village in Yongin runs its own version and pulls the audience into the circle, so pick whichever fits your route rather than doing both . Since palace admission is waived the same days, stack it with Gyeongbokgung — you are already inside the gate .
📍 37 Samcheong-ro, Jongno District, Seoul
🕒 Monday–Tuesday 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM / Wednesday 9:00 AM – 8:00 PM / Thursday–Sunday 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM
⭐ 4.6 (3,923 reviews)
📞 02-3704-3114
🔗 View on Google Maps
MMCA Seoul | 관광
MMCA waives admission at all four branches — Gwacheon, Seoul, Deoksugung and Cheongju — across the holiday as part of the government's Chuseok livelihood-stabilization package. MMCA Seoul, at 30 Samcheong-ro in Jongno-gu, is the one branch that goes dark on Sept. 25, since its own visitor page lists January 1, Seollal and Chuseok as permanent closure days . Regular hours are 10:00–18:00 on Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri/Sun and 10:00–21:00 on Wed and Sat . The holiday-window headline shows are Do Ho Suh and Korea Artist Prize 2026 in Seoul, Lee Dai-won at Deoksugung, and at Gwacheon the 40th-anniversary Imaginations of Light alongside Road Movie: Korean and Japanese Art since 1945; Cheongju carries a Bang Hai Ja retrospective.
📋 주소 · 30 Samcheong-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul · 10:00–18:00 (Wed·Sat to 21:00), closed Sept. 25 · 대표 전시: Do Ho Suh, Korea Artist Prize 2026
💡 Deoksugung is the efficient pairing — the branch is a five-minute walk from City Hall Station and palace entry is free that week anyway , so one ticketless afternoon covers a palace and a museum.
📍 30 Samcheong-ro, Jongno District, Seoul
🕒 Monday–Tuesday 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM / Wednesday 10:00 AM – 9:00 PM / Thursday–Friday 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM / Saturday 10:00 AM – 9:00 PM / Sunday 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
⭐ 4.6 (4,280 reviews)
📞 02-3701-9500
🔗 View on Google Maps
What Else Is Free This Chuseok: Palaces, Jongmyo and the Royal Tombs
Admission is waived at Seoul's four Joseon-era palaces, Jongmyo Shrine and all 40 Royal Tombs of the Joseon dynasty across the entire Chuseok window. The Royal Palaces and Tombs Center of the Korea Heritage Service posted the notice "2026 추석 연휴기간 4대궁 및 종묘, 조선왕릉 무료입장 안내" on its own notice board on 2026-09-21 , alongside site-level notices for Changdeokgung, Gyeongbokgung, Deoksugung and Jongmyo. VISITKOREA confirms the waiver covers Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, Deoksugung, Changgyeonggung, Jongmyo and every one of the 40 tombs . Weekly closing days — normally Tuesday for Gyeongbokgung and Jongmyo, Monday for the other three palaces and the tombs — are suspended for the holiday .
Two operational exceptions are worth knowing before you plan a route:
- Changdeokgung's Huwon (Secret Garden) is excluded. The rear garden still needs a paid, reserved, language-specific time slot capped at 100 people per session . Free entry gets you the palace proper, not the garden.
- Jongmyo flips to walk-up viewing. The shrine normally admits visitors only on reservation-based guided tours; during the holiday it opens to general roaming without booking . It is the one stretch of the year you can set your own pace along the main hall's long stone path.
The trade-off for free entry is a thinner program schedule. Regular guided-tour rotations and the Gyeonghoeru and Hyangwonjeong special viewings at Gyeongbokgung are suspended during the Chuseok window . What does run is the standing ceremonial rotation at Gwanghwamun, all walk-up with no reservation: royal guard-changing at 10:00 and 14:00, the sentry-duty ceremony at 11:00 and 13:00, and the 순라 patrol ceremony at 15:00 . Gyeongbokgung's autumn hours are 09:00–18:00; Deoksugung runs nightly to 21:00 year-round, which makes it the natural last stop if you spend the afternoon elsewhere .
Geography makes these a realistic same-day pairing with the Yongsan concert. Line 4 connects Ichon, the museum's station, to Jongno-area transfers in a handful of stops, so a 13:00 or 15:00 set on the museum plaza leaves the rest of the day open for Gyeongbokgung or Jongmyo — and on Sept. 26 and 27, when both the museum and the palaces are running, nothing in that itinerary is ticketed.
Chuseok Logistics: What's Closed, Transit Tips and Getting In From the Airport
Chuseok Day itself is Friday, Sept. 25, 2026, and that single day is the one that changes how Seoul works: department stores, malls and a large share of restaurants close or cut hours, while convenience stores, tourist-district shops, the subway and city buses run on normal schedules . The official holiday runs Thursday, Sept. 24 to Saturday, Sept. 26, with the break extending through Sunday, Sept. 27 — the Korea Herald frames the window the same way, and because the cluster ends on a Saturday there is no substitute Monday off .
The real bottleneck is intercity travel, not city travel. KTX and express-bus seats over the holiday surge sell out well in advance, and VISITKOREA's 2026 Chuseok advisory tells visitors to book ahead and treat rental cars as the fallback . If your plan is Seoul-only — museum plaza at 13:00 or 15:00, palaces in between — none of that applies to you. Staying inside the city is the low-friction version of this holiday.
Arriving from Incheon during the window, the options break down like this (figures from a 2026 traveler report, so treat them as approximate):
- AREX express — about 45 minutes to Seoul Station, roughly USD 7; the all-stop train is about USD 3.50. Service runs 05:30–22:30 (video: Angelica & Aileen Wanders).
- Airport limousine bus — 60–90 minutes depending on traffic, about USD 13, operating 05:00–23:00 .
- Taxi — USD 50–70 to downtown plus a USD 6 Incheon toll, which is the option that suffers most if holiday road traffic builds .
Buy a T-money card at any convenience store on arrival: it costs a one-time 4,000 won, covers subway, city bus and taxi fares, and the unused balance is refundable at convenience stores or train stations before you fly out . It is the single purchase that makes a free-admission itinerary actually free at the margins.
The concrete takeaway: treat Friday the 25th as the shopping-and-dining dead zone and the other three days as the working ones. Sept. 24, 26 and 27 are when the National Museum of Korea is open, when the Art Spot sets play at 13:00 and 15:00 — including Kim Junsu with Second Moon on the 27th — and when the palaces, Jongmyo and the Royal Tombs are waiving admission. Book intercity seats now if you are leaving Seoul; if you are not, a T-money card and a subway map cover the entire holiday.
Frequently asked questions
When exactly does Kim Junsu perform at the National Museum of Korea?
Pansori singer Kim Junsu appears with fusion band Second Moon as part of the Art Spot Series, which runs on the three days the National Museum of Korea is open over the holiday — Sept. 24, 26 and 27, 2026 . Each of those days carries two free 50-minute sets at the Open Plaza (열린마당), at 13:00 and 15:00. The museum's own Art Spot Series announcement lists performer group Cheorat first, then Kim Junsu with Second Moon closing the day, on Sept. 27 — though it's still worth checking the museum's notice board close to your visit, since holiday programming can shift a running order .
Do I need a ticket or reservation for the Art Spot Series concerts?
No. The Art Spot Series is free admission with no reservation and no ticket — seating is open-plaza and first-come. The series has been co-organized with the Korea Traditional Performing Arts Foundation since 2018 , and wheelchair seating is provided at the Open Plaza. Because the plaza fills from the front, arriving 20–30 minutes before the 13:00 or 15:00 start is the practical way to get a seated spot rather than a standing view. The museum's permanent exhibition is also free year-round; only special exhibitions are ticketed .
Is the National Museum of Korea open on Chuseok Day itself?
No. The museum's own visitor-information page lists Chuseok Day — Friday, Sept. 25, 2026 — among its three annual closure days, alongside Jan. 1 and Seollal . It is open on Sept. 24, 26 and 27 with full programming, per the Korea Herald's holiday roundup and the museum's own notice. Regular hours are 09:30–17:30 on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday, and 09:30–21:00 on Wednesday and Saturday; the outdoor gardens run 07:00–22:00 daily . MMCA Seoul is also closed on the 25th, while its Gwacheon, Deoksugung and Cheongju branches stay open .
Which Seoul palaces are free during Chuseok 2026?
Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, Deoksugung and Changgyeonggung — plus Jongmyo Shrine and the Joseon Royal Tombs — waive admission across Sept. 24–27, 2026, under notices the Royal Palaces and Tombs Center posted on its own notice board on Sept. 21, 2026 . There is no weekly closing day during the window, and VISITKOREA confirms the waiver covers all 40 Joseon Royal Tombs . Two caveats: Changdeokgung's Huwon (Secret Garden) is excluded and still needs a paid, reserved language-slot ticket capped at 100 people per session , and Jongmyo — normally guided-tour-only — switches to free roaming for the holiday .
How do I get from Incheon Airport to the National Museum of Korea for the holiday?
Take the AREX express to Seoul Station, then transfer to Seoul Subway Line 4 for Ichon Station, the stop that serves the museum in Yongsan. The AREX express takes about 45 minutes and costs roughly USD 7, with the all-stop train at about USD 3.50; the airport limousine bus is about USD 13 and 60–90 minutes, and a taxi runs USD 50–70 plus a USD 6 Incheon toll (video: Angelica & Aileen Wanders) . AREX operates 05:30–22:30 and the limousine bus 05:00–23:00. Buy a T-money card first — it costs a one-time 4,000 won and the residual balance is refundable at any convenience store . Seoul subways and city buses run normally through the holiday, so no special planning is needed inside the city .
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This article was written using information collected and analyzed by NAMANE's in-house K-pop research AI engine. We use AI technology to bring you faster, broader coverage, and in the process some details may occasionally differ from the latest facts. For important information such as dates, venues, and prices, please double-check with official sources.
