Busan Fireworks Festival 2026 — seats, free spots, 7 November

Busan Metropolitan City and the Busan Festival Organizing Committee hold the 21st Busan Fireworks Festival on the night of Saturday 7 November, with Gwangan Bridge and the sea in front of it as the stage. When regular seat sales opened on 4 September, the city said this year's show would have two parts, an invited overseas fireworks show and the Busan Multi Fireworks Show, and introduced a 10% discount for Busan residents for the first time. This page separates what is fixed (the date, the start time, seat prices, booking deadlines) from what has not been announced (the detailed timetable, road closures, the seating map), and uses last year's 20th festival to fill the gaps where that helps.

What is the Busan Fireworks Festival, and what is different this year?

The festival grew out of a fireworks show held to celebrate the 2005 APEC summit in Busan and has been staged over the sea ever since, with the lights on Gwangan Bridge and a music track timed to the fireworks. It draws enormous crowds: for last year's 20th edition on 15 November 2025, the city deployed some 7,000 safety staff and designated 42 crowd-management zones.

This year the programme has two parts: an invited overseas fireworks show and the Busan Multi Fireworks Show. Last year a 20th-anniversary celebration show was added as a first part, making three. As of 10 October, this year's theme, the companies taking part and any new effects had not been announced.

When should you arrive? Using last year's timetable as a guide

The only time fixed for this year is the 19:00 start of the main show; the NOL ticket listing gives a running time of one hour with a 10-minute interval. The full day's schedule, including the afternoon events, has not been released, so the table below is last year's timetable from the city's press release, for reference only. There is no guarantee this year runs in the same order.

R seats and S seats: what is the difference, and how much?

The reserved seating is laid out on the sand in front of Hotel Aqua Palace and Homers Hotel on Gwangalli Beach. The two grades differ in whether you get a table, and in where you can buy them. Prices are unchanged from last year.

Booking deadlines, and how the resident discount works

• Deadlines by seller: NOL Ticket and NOL World 17:00 on Friday 6 November; Busan Bank mobile banking 23:59 on Sunday 1 November; Busan Bank branches at close of business on Thursday 5 November. Branches sell S seats only.
• Collecting a resident-discount ticket: every discounted ticket is a paper ticket collected on the day — NOL bookings at the NOL Ticket booth, Busan Bank purchases at the Busan Bank booth. The discount has to be chosen when you book; it cannot be applied on site to a regular-price ticket.
• Proof of residence: for an online booking, the buyer and every companion show ID on the day; if the ID has no Busan address, a resident registration certificate issued within the last three months is needed as well. Without proof you pay the difference to the regular price. Discount tickets cannot be collected by someone else or transferred.
• Delivery of regular tickets: regular NOL tickets booked by 11 October are posted from 12 October; anything booked later is collected on site. A representative can collect a regular ticket with a copy of the buyer's ID and the booking confirmation.
• Entry: according to the NOL listing, the seating opens at 15:00, and anyone not in their seat by 18:00 loses both entry and the refund.
• Hotel packages: sold separately on NOL until 23:59 on 25 October.

Where can you watch without a ticket?

Everywhere around Gwangalli outside the ticketed area is open to all. The beach front is also the most crowded spot: last year, once it reached capacity, access to the beach and the beach road was closed in stages. If you want the bridge and the city lights in one view, the hills a little further away are the alternative.

You do not have to face the bridge head-on. From the Marine City side of Haeundae, the fireworks spread out behind the towers.

Road closures and public transport: last year's arrangements

This year's road closures and transport plan have not been released. Last year the city published them five days before the festival, so check again in the first week of November. The list below is what happened in 2025; it does not mean the same will apply this year.

• Gwangan Bridge: on the day, the upper deck (towards Nam-gu) closed fully from 15:30 and the lower deck (towards Haeundae) from 18:30.
• Gwanganhaebyeon-ro: the 0.82 km stretch from Eonyang junction to Mannam Square was closed to vehicles from 10:00, followed by second- and third-stage closures on the beach road and Gwangnam-ro.
• Metro: empty trains were sent to Suyeong, Gwangan and Geumnyeonsan stations when they became crowded, and some stations were skipped when the crowds became a safety risk.
• City buses: extra buses on 21 routes near the venue, some running until midnight (shortened if traffic was jammed).
• Going home: spectators on the beach road were sent off first, then those on the sand.

Getting there, and what to expect if you do not read Korean

From Seoul, the KTX to Busan Station takes roughly two and a half to three hours; from there, Busan Metro Line 1 to Seomyeon and then Line 2 towards Jangsan brings you to Geumnyeonsan Station (금련산역) or Gwangan Station (광안역), both a short walk from Gwangalli Beach. Station names and line signs on the Busan Metro are in English. On the day, those stations are the busiest in the city, trains may run through them without stopping, and the walk out after 20:00 can take as long as the show itself, so arrive early in the afternoon and decide on your route home in advance. The fireworks need no language at all; the parts that are in Korean are the on-site public announcements and the city's closure notices, and the official website has an English section. If you book a seat, use NOL World, the English version of the ticket site, which is set up for international visitors and verifies your passport; you then collect or receive the ticket as the listing explains, and the 18:00 seat deadline applies to you too.

A short-term visitor cannot use the Busan resident discount: a foreign national needs an Alien Registration Card or a domestic residence report card showing a Busan address, and the discounted ticket can only be collected in person on the day.