The 16th Yeowoorak Festival (July 4–26, 2025), held at the National Theater of Korea under the artistic direction of Hee-moon Lee, unfolded across 12 productions and 16 performances that embraced both tradition and experimentation.

Beginning with the opening performance Strange Folk Song Land: Himuni, the festival featured diverse collaborations such as Choi Baek-ho × Park Seung-won, Insooni × Yu Ji-sook, and WoongSan × Lee Jae-ha, alongside the profound voices of master singers Lee Chun-hee, Kim Soo-yeon, and Kim Kwang-sook. Experimental works by young folk singer Go Geum-seong and the male gugak ensemble Gomangoman also stood out, culminating in the finale Paldo Folk Song Contest, which expanded the spectrum between tradition and the contemporary.

Guided by the declaration that “a festival is nothing if it isn’t fun,” Yeowoorak sought not only to preserve tradition but to re-contextualize and contemporize it—achieving remarkable success with most performances selling out.

With its central theme of “Rediscovering Folk Songs,” the 2025 Yeowoorak Festival vividly demonstrated how folk music can once again come alive in our time.