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Gwanghwamun Square itself now hosts two of the festival's biggest draws side by side: a media art and projection-mapping show pairing generative-AI-driven visuals with traditional Korean music against the backdrop of Gwanghwamun Gate and Gyeongbokgung Palace, and the Seoul Lantern Festival's own main display of over 200 illuminated sculptures and interactive lantern installations, which moved to the square from its original home along Cheonggyecheon Stream in 2022 (a smaller presence remains along the stream itself).
The wider festival also includes a Christmas market, an outdoor ice skating rink, and a New Year's Eve bell-ringing ceremony at Bosingak Pavilion, where thousands of participants wear LED wristbands that light up in coordinated displays.
Gwanghwamun Square itself sits at the symbolic center of Seoul, a broad pedestrian plaza running along Sejongno Boulevard directly in front of Gwanghwamun, the main gate of Gyeongbokgung Palace. The festival's other venues span a similarly central stretch of the city, from the restored Cheonggyecheon Stream running below street level to the Dongdaemun Design Plaza a short distance east.