The Arirang Mass Games is a festival of artistic and gymnastics performances held annually by the North Korean people at the Rungrado May Day Stadium in Pyongyang. Also referred to as the Arirang Festival, the games are scheduled for either August or September.
The first-ever Arirang Mass Games festival took place in 2002; the annual calendar was followed religiously until 2013 without counting 2006. After taking a break of five years, the festival returned in 2018 with a performance dubbed ‘The Glorious Country’.
According to media publications of the mass games, Arirang is a Korean folk story known to the locals that narrates how a young couple was separated from one another – much like the division story of the South and North.
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