Arirang Mass Gymnastics Festival [Mass Games]

What: The tough­est one to attend on this list, the five week long Ari­rang Grand Mass Gym­nas­tics and Artis­tic Per­for­mance or ‘Mass Games’ is a gym­nas­tics, artis­tic and cul­tur­al fes­ti­val which unites North Korea, as 100,000 spe­cial­ly cho­sen per­form­ers exe­cute syn­chro­nised gym­nas­tic and danc­ing rou­tines backed by dra­mat­ic music and LED pyrotech­nic dis­plays.

Host­ed on the theme of ‘‘The Glo­ri­ous Nation’ the mass games also seeks to tell the sto­ry of North Korea, and the lega­cy and ide­ol­o­gy of both Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il and the work­ers part of North Korea, with the sto­ries of both lead­ers and the Kingdom’s his­to­ry told in a series of flash­card mosaics car­ried by school chil­dren as young as five, along­side a pyrotech­nic dis­play – with the mass games being a unique occa­sion in which North Korea opens itself, its peo­ple and its his­to­ry up to the world.

When: The dates can vary for the mass games, orig­i­nal­ly the fes­ti­val was held annu­al­ly between 2002 and 2013, and then can­celled, before being revived in 2018 and 2019. The fes­ti­val usu­al­ly takes place between August and Sep­tem­ber, but on occa­sion may start in late July. Giv­en the loca­tion of the fes­ti­val, your best bet for dis­cov­er­ing whether the fes­ti­val is going ahead this year and the exact start date in the Autumn peri­od is to vis­it koryogroup.com

Where: The mass games take place in North Korea, in Pyongyang in the May Day 150,000-seat Run­gra­do May Day Sta­di­um – the worlds biggest sta­di­um.

Dura­tion: The dura­tion of the fes­ti­val is nor­mal­ly two months long, with the dates for both start and end­ing vary­ing each year, again at the moment no infor­ma­tion exists for start times and dates for each days per­for­mances (often pend­ing the arrival of lead­ers for the start of the per­for­mance) – instead it’s rec­om­mend­ed (if you’re not North Kore­an) to fol­low the instruc­tions of your tour provider.

Tick­ets: It is strong­ly rec­om­mend­ed that unless you’re North Kore­an to only attempt to attend the mass games with a pre-approved tour oper­a­tor. Each tour provider has a set num­ber of tick­ets they can allo­cate to non-North Kore­an res­i­dents, with the Young Pio­neer Tours hav­ing an allo­ca­tion of 500 tick­ets and Koryo tours [https://koryogroup.com/tours/dprk-north-korea/mass-games] hav­ing an allo­ca­tion of 1000. Tick­ets vary in price, with 3rd class tick­ets being 100 EUROs, 2nd Class being 300 EUROs, 1st Class being 500 EUROs and the VIP sec­tion cost­ing 800 EUROs.

To get your­self a chance of secur­ing tick­ets its rec­om­mend­ed to sign up for alerts with both tick­et and tour providers and expect a rig­or­ous and detailed exam­i­na­tion of iden­ti­fi­able doc­u­ments.

Need to Know: With the excep­tion of North Kore­ans, any­one attempt­ing to attend the mass games needs to go through a rep­utable tour group – and expect to be mon­i­tored and observed in the coun­try.

It is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed to check for­eign office trav­el guid­ance for North Korea, inform fam­i­ly mem­bers and embassies that you will be attend­ing and then to fol­low all instruc­tions giv­en by the tour oper­a­tions and guides and not do any­thing that might cause offence or mis­trust with­in North Korea or at the mass games.

More Infor­ma­tion: For more infor­ma­tion includ­ing pho­tos, tour pack­ages and dates it is advised to vis­it [https://koryogroup.com] a tour oper­a­tor spe­cial­is­ing in trips to the mass games.