On October 31, up to 160,000 people gathered across Seoul’s Itaewon and Hongdae districts as Halloween coincided with a weekend for the first time since the October 29 Itaewon disaster. Itaewon reached about 34,000 people around 10 p.m., comparable to the 33,623 recorded around the time of the first crush-related emergency call in 2022, while Hongdae peaked at roughly 125,000 to 130,000.
Police, city officials and private safety personnel opened parts of roads to pedestrians and controlled access to narrow alleys, with 370 police officers deployed in Itaewon and no major accidents reported. Many visitors celebrated while also stopping at the memorial site to remember those who died.