Countdown Fantasy 2026 to 2027: a band festival to close the year at KINTEX

What you need to know, in short

The Countdown Fantasy 2026 to 2027 is a one day, band music festival on Thursday 31 December 2026 at KINTEX Halls 7 and 8 in Ilsan, Goyang. It is organised by Mint Paper, the team behind the Grand Mint Festival and Beautiful Mint Life, and it spreads its programme across three stages. The first lineup names 12 acts, tickets have been on sale since 13 October 2026, and a second lineup is still to come.

A year-end festival built around bands

Most of the big year-end shows in Korea are broadcast specials or award ceremonies. Countdown Fantasy is built differently: a festival day of live bands, indoors at KINTEX, on the last day of the year. That focus shapes the bill, which leans into guitar bands, electronic live acts and the kind of groups that built their names on festival stages rather than television. If your taste runs that way, this is the New Year's Eve listing that was missing from the calendar, and it sits a week after the SBS Gayo Daejeon at the same venue, so KINTEX effectively bookends the season.

The organiser is the clue

Mint Paper is a festival organiser first, and Countdown Fantasy reads like it: three stages under one roof, a bill you move between rather than a single seat you sit in, and a date chosen for the occasion rather than the broadcast schedule. The Grand Mint Festival and Beautiful Mint Life are the names this team is known by, and both are built around days of live music rather than a single headline set. Expect that same festival logic here, scaled to one day and one very deliberate date, with the new year as the deadline the whole programme is counting down to.

The first lineup: 12 acts

The first lineup names 12 acts: HYUKOH, Silica Gel, FTISLAND, THE SOLUTIONS, ONEWE, KARDI, Far East Asian Tigers, IDIOTAPE, LOW HIGH LOW, AxMxP, OYSTERS and POSER. Read it in layers: HYUKOH, Silica Gel and FTISLAND are the names most visitors will know first, IDIOTAPE bring the electronic edge, and the rest of the bill is a good survey of where Korean band music stands at the end of 2026. It is not the whole bill. A second lineup was announced to be revealed on 3 November 2026, so treat this list as the first announcement rather than the final running order, and check the event page for the update when it lands.

Tickets: on sale since 13 October

Tickets went on sale from 13 October 2026 through four sellers: NOL, YES24, Naver Booking and 2TM. This guide does not quote a price, because no price is stated in the announcement this listing is based on, so check the sellers themselves for the current price and availability before you commit. The practical advice is the usual Korean festival advice, only sharper on this date: 31 December is one of the most contested nights of the year, so buy through one of the four named sellers, and sort your ticket before you sort anything else about the night.

Making a New Year's Eve of it

KINTEX sits in Ilsan, in the north west of the Seoul area, and a festival on 31 December is best planned as a short trip rather than a night out and back. Staying around Ilsan keeps the end of the night simple, and stays there and across Seoul are on the hotels page. If you are in the city for the whole season, pair the festival with the centre of Seoul on the days either side: our Seoul Winter Festa guide walks the lanterns, markets and light shows, and covers the bell ringing tradition at Bosingak for those who want the classic midnight scene on another night of the trip. Countdown Fantasy is the other way to close the year: not a ceremony in a square, but a day of bands in Ilsan, with the new year waiting at the end of it.

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