Jinju’s lantern festival is easy to reduce to a night view. The official 2026 program makes a more interesting story visible: the evening begins with acts of remembrance, then turns the river and fortress into a field of public participation, contemporary imagery and entertainment. The festival traces the yudeung tradition to the Battles of Jinjuseong during the Imjin War. The organizer describes lanterns as having been used both as military signals and as a way to communicate with people outside the fortress; Korea Tourism Organization material repeats that historical frame. On opening day in 2026, the sequence still starts with memorial and symbolic acts: a rite at 18:00, a lantern procession at 18:30 and first lighting at 19:30. After that, the festival becomes deliberately contemporary. The 2026 program places fortress-history and peace-themed lantern zones beside a railway-culture-park zone that turns globally recognizable Korean pop imagery into illuminated installations. Other activities range from lantern making and a history mission tour to AI-responsive lanterns and an AI-based K-pop dance experience. That mix matters more than any claim that the festival has suddenly become 'modern': Jinju is using a long-running ritual and place memory as the frame through which newer popular culture is displayed. For visitors, the event is spread across Jinjuseong Fortress and the Namgang River area rather than one viewing point. Lanterns are scheduled to light from 18:00 to 24:00; bridges and booths operate 13:00–23:00. On selected festival dates including opening weekend, free shuttles run 16:00–23:00 from seven park-and-ride routes, while road restrictions apply around the festival area. General admission is listed as free by VISITKOREA, but individual experiences can charge separate fees. The useful way to read Jinju’s festival, then, is not as a choice between heritage and spectacle. The 2026 edition shows how the city stages both at once: wartime memory and memorial ritual remain explicit, while the same night route makes room for participatory technology, character imagery and K-pop references. Whether that balance feels coherent on the ground is still a question for the visitor rather than something the program itself can prove.