These days, it’s difficult to distinguish between the start of the festival and the conclusion of the sporting event when strolling through Ttukseom or Jamsil Hangang Park on a race weekend. It appears that the purpose is precisely that blurriness. Following a Han River triathlon weekend that drew about 893,000 spectators, Seoul’s city government is getting ready to incorporate augmented reality into its premier riverside running event. “AR Fan Experience Zones” are planned for spectators who attend without ever planning to run a step.
To be honest, it’s a sensible next step. Over the past few years, Seoul has transformed the Hangang River from a jogging route for locals to a venue for what officials continue to refer to as “experiential content.” These days, the phrase appears frequently in city planning documents, and the jargon makes it easy to roll your eyes. However, if you walk the course during one of these festivals, you can see what they mean: cultural zones with names like Haechi Island strewn along the bank, a children’s “Iron Rookie” triathlon running alongside a disability swimming competition, and ramen tasting tents next to swim starts. In other words, the marathon is no longer simply a marathon.
Seoul seems to be trying to provide non-runners with something to do other than stand on the sidelines with a sign by creating AR zones. Imagine interactive installations close to the finish line that allow fans to “race” a virtual avatar of a top competitor, or phone-based augmented reality portals where spectators can scan a runner’s bib and watch a digital overlay track their progress along the river in real time. Some of what has been proposed may change or shrink by race day because city planners often test ideas in private before implementing them at scale, and none of this is officially confirmed down to the last detail.
This also makes sense from a business standpoint. The Han River festivals have grown from about 80,000 attendees in 2022 to millions over the course of the year, according to Seoul’s tourism office. A satisfaction survey from this June’s triathlon revealed that 84% of participants said they would return. That kind of figure causes a city to double down instead of staying the same. Families, tourists, and social media-savvy twenty-somethings who attended the Find Wally run in Yeouido or strayed into the World Cup-themed fan zone the city set up near Ttukseom this month are the target audience for adding augmented reality, not the die-hard runners aiming for personal bests.
Another question is whether the technology really lands well. The track record of augmented reality experiences at outdoor public events has been uneven: glare on phone screens, inconsistent connectivity over a five-kilometer riverbank stretch, and crowds too dense to comfortably scan anything. The odds are probably better here than most places because Seoul has the infrastructure advantage that comes with being one of the world’s most connected cities. However, a slick demo video is not the same as something that works for a few hundred thousand people moving at different speeds in a sweaty, distracted crowd.
The AR itself doesn’t seem all that fascinating, but rather what it says about Seoul’s views on public space. In a matter of years, the Han River has transformed from a local backdrop to a branded “festival hub,” as the city actively pursues year-round programming and international recognition. Adding augmented reality to the marathon, which is an additional layer designed to entice people to stay, spend, and post, fits that pattern. Only the following race weekend will truly determine whether it enhances the experience or merely adds another screen between spectators and the river.
