At 10 a.m. on Saturday, a long line had already formed in front of Star Avenue at Lotte Department Store's flagship location in Jung-gu, central Seoul. The crowd was not gathered for a newly opened luxury boutique or a discount sale. They were waiting for a sauna-themed escape room game set up in the middle of the department store.
Lotte Department Store is hosting the "2026 Lotte Town Myeong-dong Festival" around its Myeong-dong flagship store from Saturday through the 25th. This year's centerpiece is an immersive escape room game called "Lotte Town Korean Medicine Clinic Sauna." About 3,000 people rushed to the online pre-registration ahead of the event, with reservations closing within five minutes.
The space hosting the event was occupied by Uniqlo just a month ago. The large store where customers once browsed and purchased clothes has been transformed into an experiential venue combining the concepts of a Korean jjimjilbang and a traditional Korean medicine clinic.
Upon entering, the gentle scent of medicinal herbs filled the entire space. Wooden lockers, sauna tiles and bathhouse signs lined the walls, evoking the atmosphere of an actual sauna. The faint sound of running water and background music played throughout. The roughly 430-square-meter space was created in collaboration with escape room specialist Keyescape.
Inside, brands representing K-fashion, K-beauty and K-gaming — including Emis, Sulwhasoo and the mobile game "Luck-based Number Game" — each took charge of a themed space, offering different forms of experiential content.
The Emis space was designed as a sauna locker room. Rather than simply browsing products, visitors examined locker numbers and the tags on hats, bags and T-shirts hanging on the racks, searching for clues. The space was structured so that participants had to follow hints hidden across the floor to find their assigned locker number and unlock its combination before moving on to the next area.
The adjacent Sulwhasoo space felt as though an actual sauna bathroom had been transplanted into the store. The information desk at the entrance was styled like a bathhouse counter, while the interior featured tiled walls, steam effects and soft lighting. Participants experienced the space by completing a mission with their teammates to fill a bathtub rendered through a media facade.
The mood shifted in the space themed around the mobile game "Luck-based Number Game." Under dim lighting, walls scattered with starlight and card tables were arranged, and visitors had to match number combinations through card-flipping and ladder games. Smartphones were also set up on one side, allowing visitors to play the actual game.
After completing each room's mission, participants receive a "diagnosis card." Collecting all of them and moving to the final space yields a personalized prescription. The combinations of cards yield different outcomes, adding an element designed to encourage repeat visits.
The final hidden room was decorated as a dreamlike photo zone, completely different in atmosphere from the rest of the sauna setting. Lighting, music and bubble effects came together, with words meaning "healing" written on the walls in various languages. Visitors who completed the missions lingered in the space, taking photos.
The festive atmosphere extended beyond the event venue to the streets of Myeong-dong. A 3-meter-tall oversized cube photo zone was installed at the Cosmonergy Plaza on the first basement level of the flagship store, while an "LTM Market" was held at the outdoor plaza of Lotte Hotel Seoul. Major Lotte Group affiliates including Lotte Duty Free, Lotte Chilsung Beverage and Lotte Homeshopping participated by operating experiential booths.
Since its launch in 2023, the "Lotte Town Myeong-dong Festival" has moved beyond simple discount events and shopping-focused programs, strengthening experiential content to establish itself as a representative urban festival. Lotte Department Store has expanded distinctive content tied to the Myeong-dong commercial district every year. Last year, the festival drew strong responses, particularly from foreign tourists and the MZ generation, recording one million cumulative visitors.
"Department stores are recently moving beyond competition as mere sales spaces and accelerating their content competition centered on 'experiential consumption,'" a retail industry official said. "Lotte Department Store, in particular, is evolving beyond a shopping space into a platform where consumers can directly experience K-content."
