Jaan Roose completes highline walk above central Seoul

Jaan Roose completed a highline walk above central Seoul, South Korea, on Thursday, October 1, crossing from the Koreana Hotel to the Dong-A Media Center and returning to the hotel roof. The 160-metre line was suspended about 120 metres above the ground, placing the Estonian performer over a busy part of the city as lunchtime crowds watched below.

Roose stepped onto the line from the hotel roof at 1 p.m., according to reports by the Guardian and KBS World. The route ran near Gyeongbokgung Palace and Gwanghwamun Square. Organisers described the event as South Korea’s first high-altitude slackline performance; that description is their claim, rather than an independently established record.

How Roose crossed the line above Gwanghwamun

The walk included more than a crossing. Midway along the line, Roose sat cross-legged, then lay flat on his back before getting up and continuing toward the Dong-A Media Center. After reaching the far side, he turned around and headed back toward the Koreana Hotel, the Guardian reported.

On the return, Roose again lowered himself at the halfway point and waved to the crowd. He then hung from the line by one arm and dangled by his feet. The Guardian reported that he completed the return to the hotel roof and that spectators applauded when the performance ended.

Another spectator, Choi Eun-jung, told the Guardian she was worried Roose might fall. Although she knew he was a professional, she said the sight was still frightening. Their accounts capture what the height meant for people watching from street level, even as Roose continued to perform on the line.

What is known about the second Seoul performance

A second performance was scheduled for 4 p.m., according to the Guardian’s report. The available reporting establishes the completed 1 p.m. crossing and return, but does not confirm whether the later performance took place or what happened during it. The scheduled appearance should therefore be treated as a plan, not another completed walk.

The public could also try slacklines at nearby Cheonggye Plaza, the Guardian reported. Those lines were set 30 and 50 centimetres above the ground, a markedly different setting from Roose’s route between the two buildings. The demonstration gave spectators a way to encounter the activity at ground level during the event.

Why Roose chose a site in Seoul

Roose said a visit to South Korea in 2022 helped inspire the Gwanghwamun walk. During that trip, he encountered jultagi, the Korean tradition of tightrope walking, according to the Guardian. The connection explains his choice of Seoul as more than a backdrop for a highline performance.

UNESCO’s listing of jultagi describes a performance that combines rope acrobatics with music, songs, jokes and dialogue between the walker and a clown on the ground. UNESCO inscribed the tradition in 2011. Roose’s highline walk was a different kind of performance, but his account places the encounter with jultagi in the story of how he came to plan it.

Roose’s earlier long-distance walks

KBS World identified Roose as a 34-year-old Estonian performer and three-time slacklining world champion. The Seoul route added a city-centre walk to a record that, as described by the Guardian, includes crossings above water and other urban sites. Its distinguishing feature for spectators in Seoul was the view of a performer moving between buildings high over an active street.

In 2024, Roose crossed 3.6 kilometres on a line over the Strait of Messina between mainland Italy and Sicily, the Guardian reported. He fell near the end of that traverse and was caught by his safety harness, yet completed the crossing. That episode is relevant context for the demands of his earlier work, without establishing what safety arrangements were used in Seoul.

The Guardian also reported that Roose covered 14.7 kilometres over 12 hours on a line above the Danube in Bratislava in September 2026. The Seoul walk was shorter in distance, but its route was defined by the space between the Koreana Hotel and the Dong-A Media Center and by the spectators watching from the streets below.