It’s a big month for events, and a big month for new books. The K-music festival opens on 1 October, the major film festivals start up, and generally there’s not enough time to fit everything in. In a crowded month, I’ll be making sure I go to see Yun Ko-Eun at Waterstones Covent Garden, Bora Chung at the Festival Hall, Park Jiha at the Rich Mix and Hea Min Jung at the Coronet. And I refreshed my BFI membership just in time, so I managed to get tickets for the two Korean films at the London Film Fest. Pace yourselves, because November is likely to be just as busy, but in the meanwhile have a great Chuseok, everyone!
Exhibitions
- FOCUS Art Fair is at the Saatchi Gallery 16 – 19 October
- Ilhwa Kim’s Geographic Portrait is at HOFA Gallery 16 – 30 October
- Sun Ju Lee’s Thread Your Way Through is at Muse Gallery, from 23 October
- 4482 SASAPARI’s 2025 exhibition: Ding! Creative Corners is in various cafes in southwest London until 27 October
- Hwang Seontae returns to Pontone Gallery on 9 October
- Mikey Espinosa’s Beauty of Hanbok exhibition runs 24 – 26 October
- Last chance to see
- Do Ho Suh’s Walk the House at Tate Modern, which closes on 26 October
- Park Jieun’s Journeys (pt 1) at Pontone Gallery, closing on 4 October
- On all month
- Han Do-hyun’s Icheon ceramics exhibition at Dorich House Museum
- Mieumwanbo: Strolling Through Korean Gardens, at the KCC
- Ahn Doojin’s Imaquark at Gallery KIWA
- The Squid Game experience at ExCel
Film
- Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice and Yoon Ga-eun’s The World of Love screen at the 2025 BFI London Film Festival 14 – 19 October
- London East Asia Film Festival 2025 runs from 23 October to 2 November. Full programme yet to be announced, but there’s a screening of Bong Joon-ho’s Memories of Murder on 24 October.
- The Scottish Centre for Korean Studies has documentary screenings on Tuesday 7 and 14 October
- There is a series of North Korean Human Rights Films screening in Manchester and London 8 – 11 October
- K-pop concert screenings:
- BTS Movie Weeks runs until 5 October
- Chan Eun-woo’s Memories can be found at the Odeon Kingston and maybe elsewhere on 6 October
Live Music and performance
– K-music Festival
- Okkyung Lee with Mark Fell, King’s Place, 1 October
- JAMBINAI with London Contemporary Orchestra, Barbican, 5 October
- Hilgeum with Alice Zawadzki, Purcell Room, 18 October
- Park Jiha — All Living Things, Rich Mix, 22 October
– Pop and indie
- N.Flying’s &CON4 – FULL CIRCLE tour comes to London on 1 October
- Cotoba’s European tour comes to The Lexington 3 October
- Junny’s 2025 European tour comes to London 5 October
- Se So Neon’s tour comes to Manchester and London 14 – 15 October
- SF9’s “Love Dawn” tour comes to London 15 October
- EVNNE’s “Set N Go” tour comes to London 28 October
- Tickets for Twice’s June 2026 performance at the O2 go on sale 9 October
– Other music and performance
- Hea Min Jung’s Code of Engagement is at the Coronet Theatre 2 – 4 October
- Seoyoung Park (gayageum) performs at the KCC on 3 October
- There’s a traditonal poetry and arts exhibition with music in Kingston on 3 October
- Minah Lee (piano) plays Mozart and Chopin at St Pancras New Church, 16 October
- Namoo Chae Lee’s play Cancelling Tiger is at the Bloomsbury Festival on 17-18 October
- Esther Park plays the Brahms Violin Concerto on 19 October
- A new Pansori version of A Winter’s Tale will be performed in Wimbledon on 24 October
- Clara-Jumi Kang (violin) performs Shostakovich at the Barbican on 30 October
Food and drink
- There’s a K-Cuisine Cook & Dine Experience at Capital City College, Westminster 2 October
- Judy Joo gives a cookery talk at Foyles, accompanying her book K-Quick, 15 October
- There’s an Evening of Korean Temple Cuisine with Ven Jeong Kwan 31 October
Spoken word, classes and conversations
– Book talks
- Waterstones Covent Garden hosts an evening with Yun Ko-eun to celebrate last month’s publication of Art on Fire, 9 October
- Three Korean authors appear at Wimbledon Bookfest, 18 October
- Min Song-a is in conversation at Foyles on 25 October
- Bora Chung talks about The Midnight Timetable at the Festival Hall, 23 October
- Anton Hur talks about Prizing Korean Literature on 29 October
– Other sessions
- Changing Political and Security Landscapes in the Korean Peninsula, King’s College London, 7 October
- ‘Off the Record’: In Conversation with Do Ho Suh and Sook-Kyung Lee, Wine Bar Mayfair, 7 October
- The KCC hosts two sessions for Hangeul Day: a calligraphy workshop on 7 October and a lecture on Sejong the Great on 8 October
- The Past, Present and Future of Trilateral Cooperation between the ROK, US and Japan, Darwin College Cambridge, 10 October
- SOAS hosts the seminar Fashioning the National Body through Patchwork on 17 October
- Why we write: Writing systems and the human story, British Museum 24 October
- K-Culture Forum: Beyond the Headlines, KCCUK, 24 October
Seasonal and social events
- There’s a Kpop / hip-hop night in Vauxhall on 3 October, one in Heaven on 5 October and a Kpop party in Camden on 16 October
- There’s a Chuseok-themed women-only beauty lunch near Brick Lane on 4 October
- A North Korean Chuseok will be celebrated in New Malden, 8 October
- Korea Day at University of Lancashire, 8 October
- Korea Day in Cambridge, 11 October
- The One-Day Choir hosts a “Golden x What It Sounds Like” KPop Demon Hunters come-and-sing session, 23 October
Book publications expected this month
- Cornell University Press publishes Island Ablaze and Other Stories: The US Empire in North and South Korean Literatures, eds Ruth Barraclough, Jae-Yong Kim, Jin-kyung Lee and Sang-Kyung Lee
- Rutgers University Press publishes No Hand Held Mine, by Kim Soom tr Doo-sun Ryu, Joon-li Kim and Yun Dong-ju: A Critical Biography by Song WooHye tr Flora M. Kim
- Honford Star publishes three Lovecraft Reanimated titles: Alien Gods by Suhyeon Lee tr Anton Hur, Come Down to a Lower Place by Seoyoung Yi tr Janet Hong and The Call of the Friend by JaeHoon Choi tr Janet Hong
- Scribe publishes Midnight Timetable by Bora Chung tr Anton Hur
- Harvill publishes Soyangri Book Kitchen by Kim Jee Hye tr Shanna Tan
- Tilted Axis publishes Capitalists Must Starve by Park Seolyeon tr Anton Hur
- Tor publishes Blood for the Undying Throne by Kim Sung-il tr Anton Hur
- Bloomsbury publishes Every Day I Read: 53 Ways to Get Closer to Books by Hwang Bo-reum (of Hyunam-dong Bookshop fame) tr Shanna Tan
- University of Hawai’i Press publishes a new translation of the Samguk Yusa by Boudewijn Walraven, Frits Vos, Grace Koh and Remco E Breuker